'Most powerful 14 seconds in fashion': Anne Hathaway and Anna Wintour break the Internet at the Oscars

Dubai: At the 98th Academy Awards something unexpected happened on the Oscars stage. Fashion titan Anna Wintour, long seen as the real-world inspiration for The Devil Wears Prada’s fearsome Miranda Priestly, walked out alongside the Hollywood sweetheart Anne Hathaway. The duo was there to present the awards for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup & Hairstyling, but what made the moment unforgettable was the way it cleverly nodded back to the film that made both of them in very different ways, part of pop culture history.

Hathaway, dressed to perfection in a Valentino gown, turned to Wintour, Vogue’s longtime artistic director and asked if she wanted to read the nominees. The response? A cool, very Wintour “Thank you, Emily.”

That one line set the internet on fire. Fans immediately recognised the wink: it was a direct reference to The Devil Wears Prada, where Meryl Streep’s Miranda repeatedly calls Emily Blunt’s character by the wrong name.

One fan jokingly said, 'this might be the most iconic thing to come out of the Oscars this year.' Another user called it the "most powerful 14 seconds in fashion history." People online joked about finally seeing Anna Wintour’s eyes without her signature sunglasses and praised Hathaway’s perfectly timed reactions.

Fans joked that The Devil Wears Prada 'never really ended.' And in a way, it didn’t, because the film is officially coming back to the big screen with The Devil Wears Prada 2, set for release on April 30, 2026, with Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci all returning to the Runway universe.

Article contributed by Saarangi Aji