Even people who don’t care about fashion would be hard-pressed to ignore the whirlwind Devil Wears Prada publicity blitz happening right now.
On the menu? Meryl Streep wearing a cerulean sweater – a living meme plucked straight from the first film, and now monetised. Fans, too, can get their hands on this for a breezy $49.99, or perhaps a baseball cap from the same range. We’ve also been treated to Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway debuting their many red carpet looks on the DWP global premiere tour – many of which, like Hathaway’s slouchy thigh-high leather boots, contain little nods to the Y2K fashion of the first film.
And finally, the spectacle to top it all off: Meryl Streep starring on the cover of Vogue alongside none other than Anna Wintour (whom she also appeared with at the Oscars). The pictures of them kicking back in a limousine and laughing together predictably sent the internet into meltdown when they aired a few days ago, even as it caused my heart to sink through the floor.
“I’d like to say it’s such an honour to be played by Meryl, however distant Miranda is from myself,” Wintour said in the inside interview. “Who wouldn’t think that that wasn’t the most extraordinary gift?” Yawn.
These days, the marker of a successful production – or at least, a production that’s trying to convince you it’s successful – seems to be the press tour. Forget the marketing blitzes of yore; the billboards in Times Square or on the Underground.
In its place? Endless press junkets and red carpets; pre-planned moments precision tailored to go viral, in which the stars do things like wear outfits whose deeper meanings can be unpicked and pored over by fashion bloggers on Insta, cuddle puppies, or disclose hitherto unknown information about themselves that fans will seize on (see: Luke Thompson opening up about his Indian grandmother on the recent Bridgerton press tour).
What are the markers of a performative press tour? Firstly, the outfits. Law Roach was clearly onto something when he started dressing Zendaya in ‘method’ styles to match the films she was promoting: custom tennis-themed Loewe for Challengers, that Thierry Mugler robot suit for Dune, and now a selection of bridal looks (themed around old, new, borrowed and blue) for The Drama.
Streep’s cerulean jumper is just the latest (and arguably most cynical) example of how stars have flocked to follow suit. Both Wicked press tours (truly, it felt like they were on our feeds for a solid year) gave us stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in a selection of rotating, character-themed outfits.
Ever wanted to see Ariana Grande rock ten different versions of a pink ballgown? Or Erivo in immaculately tailored black and green? Well, good news: the internet served it up to us in a hundred different ways over the course of the 18-month Wicked press tour. As it did with Barbie, in which Margot Robbie appeared on a hot pink carpet wearing looks that referenced the Mattel doll in one of a hundred different ways.
Secondly, the relationships. Are your two leads playing romantic interests? Well, it’s in the best interests of said actors to ham that up as much as possible. The prime example of this would be Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney in the press tour for their 2023 rom-com Anyone But You, where their affectionate red-carpet behaviour sparked rumours of them dating in real life.
However, even those in relationships aren’t safe. See Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, whose recent press whirlwind for Wuthering Heights involved them gushing about their “mutual obsession” for each other (Robbie also wore a dress made from human hair, in a nod to the movie’s opening credits).
"You made my day and, as Heathcliff, filled my room with roses and it was so cute," Robbie told Elordi during a Vogue Australia interview. "I remember thinking on Valentine's Day, 'Oh he's probably a very good boyfriend, 'cause there's a lot of thoughtfulness in this.’”
"I felt quite lost, like a kid without their blanket or something,” Elordi told Fandango about being separated from Robbie during filming, adding, “I was enamoured by her.”
The final horseman of the press tour apocalypse is probably the stunt event. Timothée Chalamet’s film Marty Supreme remains the supreme example of this: nothing screams desperation like wearing a table tennis paddle bag to the film’s premiere, or turning the MSG Sphere Marty orange. Or, even his viral A24 ‘marketing video’ in which he pitched flying a massive blimp over Los Angeles.
Ultimately, this backfired on Chalamet. Far from securing his position as the prime candidate for the Oscar Best Actor frontrunner, the public mood soured. Chalamet ended up losing out to Michael B. Jordan for Sinners
And this ultimately is a good indicator of what the public mood around these ultra-public events seems to be at the moment, too. This spirit of carnival – of extreme OTT, at a time when the world is melting and nuclear war seems imminent – certainly is fun. But it’s also wearing thin.
When every press tour is competing for our attention, to be the most newsworthy, to grab headlines away from the others, the whole thing starts to feel tired, and our brains are overstimulated. Do we really need to watch endless reels of Zendaya and Robert Pattinson answering GQ’s ‘best friend quiz’ to feel like we need to go and watch The Drama? Probably not.
But in a chronically online era in which our attention is divided ever more thinly between hundreds of different outlets, images and newslines, it seems that marketing execs have decided that the only way to success is excess. Shallow spectacle, in which celebrities are welcome to gush about everything except politics or items of substance, in a bid to go viral.
What’s the future for the performative press tour? It seems we’re stuck with it for now, or at least until the aforementioned nuclear war finally materialises. But if ever there was a compelling argument for closing TikTok and putting your phone away for a few hours... maybe it’s this.
