Miranda Priestly Would Never: Meryl Streep Sits Out the Bezos-Backed Met Gala
The timing could not be more pointed. Meryl Streep, who is currently playing the most iconic fashion power player in modern cinema in ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’, has confirmed she will not be attending this year’s Met Gala, with sources indicating that the event’s powerful new backers are a likely reason for her absence.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez have stepped in as lead donors and honorary co-chairs of the annual fundraiser, with Amazon signing on as the headline sponsor. The shift away from legacy fashion houses as the event’s primary financial engine has stirred considerable debate both inside the industry and across social media in the weeks leading up to the event.
The Daily Mail reported that Streep, fresh off the premiere of ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’, turned down a co-chair invitation, with sources pointing to the Bezos connection as a driving factor. The actress graces the May 2026 Vogue cover and plays Miranda Priestly, the character widely understood as the fictional version of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, yet has in fact never once attended the Gala in all the years she has been invited.
Her representative clarified that Streep has a deep appreciation for Vogue and Wintour but that the event has simply never quite been her scene. Despite her absence, her daughters Grace and Mamie Gummer are expected to attend, as are her ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ co-stars Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.
Streep is not the only A-list name missing from the evening. Zendaya, who attended the Met Gala seven times beginning with her debut in 2015 and co-chaired the event in 2024, is also sitting this one out. Reports from Elle indicate her decision is tied to exhaustion after completing back-to-back press tours for her projects rather than a political stance.
The pressure surrounding the event has been building for weeks, with the activist group Everyone Hates Elon blanketing New York City with messaging urging a boycott of what critics are calling the Bezos Met Ball, and social media spreading the tongue-in-cheek idea that any celebrity who attends risks being “Bezos-listed.” High-profile fashion names including Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière and Jonathan Anderson of JW Anderson are also reportedly among those giving the evening a pass, with sources suggesting Bezos’s perceived ties to the Trump administration have alienated a number of prominent liberal figures in the industry.
Anna Wintour has pushed back against the noise, telling CNN that Sánchez would be a wonderful asset to the museum and expressing gratitude for the couple’s generosity. The co-chairs for the evening include Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Venus Williams, with a host committee spanning Doja Cat, Zoë Kravitz, and Elizabeth Debicki.
With ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ opening in cinemas the same weekend as fashion’s biggest night, one has to wonder whether the woman who built Miranda Priestly from the ground up sees any irony in watching the world’s most storied fashion fundraiser get bankrolled by a tech billionaire. Do you think Streep made the right call staying off that carpet, or does her absence let the Bezos controversy write the story without her?
