It Turns Out Meryl Streep & Anna Wintour Are Related

According to MyHeritage, the actress, 72, and Vogue Editor-In-Chief, 71, are 8th cousins, related through mutual ancestors on their maternal side. According to the genealogy site, their mutual ancestors are William Wilberfoss Smith Jr. — Streep and Wintour’s 7th great grandfather — and his wife, Agnes Mary Crosdale.

Streep famously portrayed Runway magazine editor Miranda Priestley in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada. The film — which also starred Anne Hathaway, Adrian Grenier, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci — was based on a 2003 book by Lauren Weisberger, who once worked as an assistant to Wintour.

In 2006, the Academy Award winning actress opened up about the iconic role — but admitted her character’s ice-cold demeanor was actually inspired by men.

“Unfortunately you don’t have enough women in power, or at least I don’t know them, to copy. Most of my models for this character were male,” Streep told British Vogue. “I know the book was based on an assistant’s eye view of Anna Wintour, but it didn’t interest me to do a documentary of Anna Wintour.”

Wintour has faced headwinds since and finds herself on the offense for the first time in her career. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that Wintour is “the rare magazine editor who is known outside the publishing industry, Ms. Wintour — she is simply ‘Anna’ to those in the know, or those who want to be — has become a singular cultural figure. After establishing herself in fashion, media and entertainment in the first part of a career that stretches to the 1970s, she has more recently become a political power player as a bundler for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And as the orchestrator of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute benefit, better known as the Met Gala, she has transformed an affair for Manhattan’s society set into a full-blown East Coast Oscars, with luminaries from fashion, music, movies and sports on the Anna-controlled guest list.”

“As Ms. Wintour ascended, Vogue’s publication of ‘hurtful or intolerant’ content rarely resulted in lasting negative attention for her. But Black journalists who have worked with Ms. Wintour, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said they had not gotten over their experiences at a magazine whose workplace mirrored its exclusive pages.”

Some of Ms. Wintour’s relationships with Black editors have been rocky. André Leon Talley, a fashion titan, was one of Vogue’s most recognized personalities, often seated beside Ms. Wintour in the front row at runway shows in Paris, Milan and New York. She lavished professional and financial support on Mr. Talley, but the two had a falling-out, and he left the magazine in 2013. “Dame Anna Wintour is a colonial broad,” Mr. Talley replied. “She’s part of an environment of colonialism. She is entitled and I do not think she will ever let anything get in the way of her white privilege.”

@opulentstylings #LFW is NEXT and If any london brands want me to attend/showcase their new collections hit me up ???? #fyp #queenelizabeth #fashion #annawintour ♬ 1991 truffle prod. jcleez – j