A New York City-based stylist says she believes she’s the real-life inspiration behind the character Emily Charlton from the popular book The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.
The character was played by Emily Blunt in the 2006 film of the same name, the predecessor to the forthcoming sequel, which also stars Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.
Leslie Fremar, an assistant at Vogue in the 1990s, appeared on a recent episode of The Run-Through with Vogue podcast. She shared with host Chloe Malle — Vogue‘s current head of editorial content — how she learned of the character and Weisberger’s 2004 book.
“I get a call from Anna [Wintour’s] office saying that she wanted to see me. I was petrified, but she said, ‘Who’s Lauren Weisberger?’ And I said, ‘She was your junior assistant,’ and she’s like, ‘Well, she wrote a book about us, and you’re worse than me,'” Fremar recalled.
“I definitely told her a million girls would kill for the job,” she added.
Streep portrayed the fictional Runway magazine editor-in-chief Miranda Priestly in the original film, a character widely believed to be inspired by former Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. Hathaway played Miranda’s second assistant, Andrea Sachs, and Blunt played Miranda’s first assistant, Emily Charlton.
A sequel, called The Devil Wears Prada 2, is set to be released in theaters on May 1.
Fremar said after she learned about the book and what Weisberger had written, she felt “betrayed,” but never spoke to Weisberger again after their time as co-workers ended.
“There’s nothing to be said,” Fremar added of what she might say if the two ever meet again.
ABC News has reached out to Weisberger through her publisher, Random House, for comment.
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