The Devil Wears Prada 2's Massive Pop Star Cameo, Explained

Put those designer heels down if you haven't seen "The Devil Wears Prada 2" — spoilers lie ahead!

Partway through "The Devil Wears Prada 2" — the legacy sequel to the beloved 2006 original, based on Lauren Weisberger's novel of the same name — a major pop star makes an appearance. So what exactly is Lady Gaga doing in this highly anticipated 2026 release?

For context, "The Devil Wears Prada 2" takes place decades after the original and finds Andrea "Andy" Sachs (Anne Hathaway) out of a job after mass layoffs at a major Manhattan newspaper. When she's asked to lead the features department at Runway Magazine under her old boss — Anna Wintour stand-in Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) — she jumps at the opportunity and is ultimately also reunited with Miranda's unfailingly loyal right-hand man Nigel Kipling (Stanley Tucci) and Andy's former co-assistant Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt), now a bigwig at Dior. As they all prepare to fly out to Milan to stage a Runway fashion show in the Pinacoteca di Brera museum, Nigel asks Miranda if she can call in a favor with a major musician. Miranda balks, but apparently, she does it ... and that's where Lady Gaga joins the film.

Miranda enters Gaga's dressing room before the performance, and it's clear the two women are at odds for some reason, though it's never explained why; Gaga simply says she only showed up because Nigel threatened that she'd never get a Runway cover again if she declined. To steal a line from another pop superstar, there's obvious "bad blood" between the two, but again, the movie doesn't give us a reason. Still, it makes perfect sense that the film asked Gaga to appear.

Not only does Lady Gaga perform a new song, "Shape of a Woman," during the in-universe runway show for Runway in "The Devil Wears Prada 2," but she also contributed multiple songs to the film's soundtrack — including "Glamorous Life" and "Runway" (a collaboration with fellow Grammy winner Doechii). Yes, Gaga's performance is fun in "The Devil Wears Prada 2," but that's because Gaga is such a charismatic and fascinating performer that she could probably liven up a routine colonoscopy. (The entire world, point in fact, just got to see that charisma on full display during Bad Bunny's outstanding Super Bowl halftime show.) The rest of the movie, however, doesn't do her justice.

To be clear, Gaga has appeared in some stone-cold cinematic stinkers before, including "Jokie: Folie á Deux" and "House of Gucci" — and she's also acquitted herself admirably as an actress, most notably in Bradley Cooper's remake of "A Star is Born." The canonical spat between Gaga and Miranda provides some mild amusement and a big "wow" moment when viewers first see her, but her cameo feels — pun very much intended — shallow.

That points to a much larger structural problem with "The Devil Wears Prada 2," which is that it throws a ton of stuff at the wall and, rather than seeing what sticks, simply moves on; the Miranda-Gaga beef being a big mystery would be a lot funnier if the movie didn't keep introducing plot threads and dropping them. Ultimately, though, the Gaga cameo reminded me of a different legacy sequel that enlisted a major diva for a surprise performance, and that's not a compliment.

In 2010, Michael Patrick King decided, for reasons I'll never fully understand, to release "Sex and the City 2," a flat, lifeless continuation of the story made famous by the original HBO series created by Darren Starr and led by Sarah Jessica Parker. While Parker's Carrie Bradshaw feels unfulfilled in her marriage to John "Mr. Big" Preston (Chris Noth), she starts the movie by attending a wedding between her two friends Stanford Blatch (the late, great Willie Garson) and Anthony Marentino (Mario Cantone). Yes, the only two major, original queer characters from "Sex and the City" get married, even though they canonically hate each other, because they're both gay men. That's a completely separate issue, though.

As a surprise for everybody at the wedding, it turns out that ultra-diva Liza Minnelli is there to officiate the vows and perform. Unlike Lady Gaga in "The Devil Wears Prada 2," Minnelli doesn't sing an original but performs Beyoncé's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" with backup dancers. It is always a gift to see Minnelli perform, but this scene is dreadful, and I'm deeply sorry to say that it popped into my mind, completely unbidden, while I watched Gaga sing "Shape of a Woman" in Milan. That is, again, not a compliment; both Gaga and Minnelli deserve better cameos in better movies. Stop wasting our best living divas on these bad sequels, Hollywood directors! I'm begging you!

"The Devil Wears Prada 2," Gaga cameo and all, is in theaters now.