MERYL STREEP - STREEP: 'WINTOUR DIDN'T INSPIRE ME'

Oscar winner MERYL STREEP insists she didn't base her THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA character MIRANDA PRIESTLY on US Vogue editor ANNA WINTOUR, because she hadn't heard of her until the movie was screened. The DAVID FRANKEL-directed film is based on a novel by Wintour's former assistant WENDY FINERMAN and is based on her experiences working for the fashion bible. But SOPHIE'S CHOICE actress Streep based her performance on a number of 'uberbosses', rather than directly portraying Wintour in the fashion industry parody. She tells the New York Daily News, "I know the book was based on an assistant's view of Anna Wintour, but it didn't interest me to do a documentary on Anna Wintour, and I don't know anything about her. I only met her at the first benefit screening. "She was a good sport, but I think she'd been told that I don't resemble her. It was much more fun for me to make the uberboss out of a (combination of people), so that's what I did." Wintour brought her boyfriend SHELBY BRYANT and daughter BEE SHAFFER to watch the movie at New York City's Paris Theatre last month (23MAY06), but she declined to pose on the red carpet with Streep. Her spokesman tells website PageSix.com, "She thought the movie was very funny."