Anne Hathaway walks out of Vanity Fair photoshoot in solidarity with union strike

18 years ago, Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs stuck it to Runway’s senior management by quitting Miranda Priestly’s magazine at the end of The Devil Wears Prada. Today, the actress is making a similar move: exiting a photo shoot in solidarity with Condé Nast Union members.

The Princess Diaries star was preparing for a photo shoot with Vanity Fair, one of Condé Nast’s top magazines, when she learned that the company’s union had staged a 24-hour walkout in protest against widespread layoffs and cost-cutting maneuvers. Upon learning about the strike, Hathaway left the photo shoot before the shutters started clicking.

“They hadn’t even started taking photos yet,” a source told Variety. “Once Anne was made aware of what was going on, she just got up from hair and makeup and left.”

Condé Nast owns many of the most recognizable publishing brands in the United States, including Vogue, GQ, Allure, Teen Vogue, Bon Appétit, Glamour, Self, and Architectural Digest. Anna Wintour currently serves as the company’s Artistic Director and Global Chief Content Officer — and was also the loose inspiration for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, based on a book by Wintour’s former assistant Lauren Weisberger.

That’s not to say there’s any personal animosity between Hathaway and Wintour — earlier this month, they appeared together as guests in Broadway’s Gutenberg, with the fashion icon slyly referring to the Interstellar actress as her “assistant” while in character on stage.

Condé Nast Union’s X account gave a shoutout to Hathaway’s solidarity. “If Runway had a union The Devil Wears Prada would’ve been 30 seconds long. Thank you Anne Hathaway for not crossing our picket line.”

The account also reposted a video of picketers chanting, “Say it loud, say it clear, winter’s extra cold this year,” presumably in reference to Wintour’s last name.

Condé Nast Union staged its daylong walkout to coincide with Oscar nominations. The union’s Condé Nast Entertainment unit vice chair Ben Dewey told THR said that the timing isn’t a coincidence: “We just really want to show how much Condé relies on union members to cover big events like the Oscar nominations.” He also told the outlet that the walkout “is really about the company engaging in regressive bargaining and breaking the law in bargaining by rescinding an offer that they had previously made around layoffs.” 

According to a statement from the union, Condé Nast announced Nov. 1 that it would lay off 94 union workers and provide them with a severance package; after negotiating with the union, the company’s next offer still would cut 94 union workers and decreased the original severance package by over half of its previous amount.

The union is asking readers for solidarity by not visiting Condé Nast sites during the walkout, and has posted links to a walkout fund and a letter to the company’s CEO. 

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