Let the luvvies unite in celebration because The Devil Wears Prada is finally sashaying onto our screens in a blaze of killer heels and sniper dialogue.

Straight out of journalism college and desperate for a job, Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) applies for the number two assistant job to fashion’s scariest creation, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), editor in chief of fashion bible Runway Magazine.

Andy has no idea about fashion – she doesn’t even know how to spell Gabbana – and is hired by Miranda for exactly that reason.

Most girls would rather spend their lifetime wearing Primark than working for such an evil despot, but most people’s obsession with clothes doesn’t extend to that of Runway’s employees. When Miranda arrives at the office without warning, you’d be forgiven for thinking her staff had just received a memo informing them Hannibal Lector was waiting in reception and his stomach was rumbling.

After constant berating about her weight and clothes by Miranda’s number one assistant Emily (Emily Blunt), Andy transforms herself from dowdy frump to designer princess – imagine Nora Batty made over by Trinny and Susannah – with the help of her only ally Nigel (Stanley Tucci), who may have swallowed couture doctrine whole, but is understanding to her plight.

Although she is now the living visual embodiment of Runway magazine, it’s last chance saloon when Miranda demands the unpublished manuscript of the next Harry Potter book for her twin daughters.

Miranda Priestly is a sadist modelled on Attila the Hun and Idi Amin combined or, allegedly, US Vogue editor Anna Wintour, because the book the film is based on is written by former Wintour assistant Lauren Weisberger. All involved deny any such association. Yeah, right.

Miranda’s character has been tempered for the film and made to appear slightly human. Hard to believe because every sentence she utters, apart from about two, is an outrageous, monotone-delivered insult accompanied by a withering look that could destroy the Queen of Sheba’s ego. Streep is obviously enjoying herself and she carries the role magnificently.

The outfits are fabulous, darling, and The Devil Wears Prada is a visual feast for fashion lovers, but there’s a distinct lack of gay men. Nigel, the only possible candidate, doesn’t seem to have a sexuality and, quite frankly, creating a fashion magazine with no gay men on its staff is a farce. Director David Frankel should know better after directing episodes of Sex and The City.

The idea that Hathaway is fat is also blatantly preposterous. She’s a size 6 (a UK size 8) and most girls would kill for a figure like hers. Disappointingly, she sheds a dress size by the end of the film.

And the developing love triangle between Andy’s earnest boyfriend Nate (Adrian Grenier) and predatory suitor Christian Thompson (Simon Baker) plods along with mechanical deliberation, until she realises that she’s transformed into a shallow, backstabbing clotheshorse.
 
Hathaway endears nevertheless, because she’s natural, pretty and after being duped into marriage by a gay cowboy earlier in the year is making a fine move away from the anodyne Princess Diaries.

In fact, The Devil Wears Prada will be of little interest to anyone who doesn’t like fashion or being a bitch. But who cares about those bores?! Take your notepad along and scribble down the put downs. Trust me, these hysterical lines will soon be flung around Soho with wild abandon by the gay men and women who will absolutely adore this movie. Fabulous, darlingggg!

The Devil Wears Prada opens in the UK on 5 October 2006

Virtual Fashion Editor
Do you know your Prada from your Primark? Well, now’s the time to find out as you get the chance to design the cover for the latest edition of Runway magazine right down to the teeny tiny shoes of the model. Let your artistic bent out of the closet and design away! Fabulous darling. Play the game here!

Buy the Lauren Weisberger’s original novel of The Devil Wears Prada online and save some money to put towards these divine gay fashion tomes: Allure: From High Fashion to Pulp Fiction - Glamour and Porn, Men in the Mirror: Men's Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society (Sexual Politics) and Don We Now Our Gay Apparel: Gay Men's Dress in the Twentieth Century (Dress, Body, Culture S.).