Meryl Streep has played one of fashion’s most intimidating fictional power players, but the real-life Met Gala has never managed to get her onto its carpet.
That may feel odd, given that Streep’s The Devil Wears Prada character Miranda Priestly is widely read as a sharp-edged echo of Vogue editor Anna Wintour, the long-running force behind the gala. Still, according to Streep’s team, the answer is not complicated.
A representative for the 76-year-old actor told Metro: “Meryl has been invited to the Met Gala for many years but has never attended.
“While she appreciates Vogue, Anna, and her incredible imagination and stamina, it has never quite been her scene.”
Clean, polite, lethal. Miranda would probably approve of the efficiency.
Why 2026 would have been the obvious year
The 2026 Met Gala takes place on May 4 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and this year’s event has an unusually neat connection to Streep’s screen legacy.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 is set to be released just days before the gala, making the first Monday in May a very glossy promotional opportunity. If Streep were ever going to appear, this would be the calendar telling her to reconsider.
The gala’s 2026 theme is Costume Art, tied to the Met’s spring exhibition, which presents garments “in dialogue with a range of artworks spanning 5,000 years of art history from the Met’s collection.” The dress code, Fashion is Art, leaves plenty of room for ambitious interpretations, which is usually where the Met Gala lives best.
Beyoncé is also expected to return to the event for the first time in 10 years, serving as a co-chair alongside Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams.
Reports say Streep declined a bigger role
Streep’s representative’s comment comes after reports claimed she had been invited to serve as a co-chair for the 2026 gala but turned down the role.
According to those reports, the decision was linked to the involvement of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez, who are serving as honorary co-chairs and lead sponsors of this year’s event.
That arrangement has prompted backlash online, including calls for a boycott. The Met Gala has traditionally leaned on luxury brands for major sponsorship, so having individuals as the primary backers marks a noticeable shift for the fashion industry’s biggest fundraising spectacle.
The Daily Mail quoted a fashion industry source who said it was “quite frankly, very hurtful and very disturbing for [the Bezoses] to be the face of this year’s Met Gala,” describing the event as “really meaningful to a lot of people and to such a highly regarded and highly respected institution.”
The source added: “It feels like a real slap in the face to a lot of people.”
The politics around the carpet
Streep has never exactly hidden her politics. The three-time Oscar winner has supported Hillary Clinton, described herself as a “man-eating feminist,” spoken at Democratic Conventions, and more recently defended Jimmy Kimmel after Donald Trump called for the late-night host to be fired over a joke about First Lady Melania Trump.
That history has fed speculation that Streep would not want her name attached to a gala where Bezos and Sanchez are so visibly positioned. The couple’s perceived alignment with the Trump administration has become one of the pressure points around this year’s event.
The Daily Mail’s fashion source also said unease inside the industry has been “rampant” ahead of the gala.
“The fashion industry and the people who work in it are, by and large, very liberal,” the source said.
“Anna [Wintour] has always publicly supported Democratic candidates for president, and Vogue endorsed Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris. Even the politicians that we’ve seen attend the Met Gala over the years have been overwhelmingly liberal.”
Political messaging at the Met Gala is not new. In 2021, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made her debut in a white gown carrying the phrase “TAX THE RICH.” That same year, former New York representative Carolyn Maloney attended in a gown featuring “ERA” and “Equal Rights for Women,” referencing her long-running advocacy around the Equal Rights Amendment.
Why the Bezos role is drawing heat
Bezos, whose net worth is estimated at $259 billion, is now one of the central names attached to the 2026 gala, and that has made some in fashion uncomfortable.
The Daily Mail source claimed: “To have a couple that aligns themselves with and have contributed a million dollars to inaugurating a president who has sought to eviscerate DEI, dismantle Roe v. Wade, disenfranchise Black voters, and crack down on immigration in a way that is so inhumane and horrific, rubs a lot of people the wrong way.”
The same source added: “Obviously, the Met Gala is always over-the-top, and wealth and grandeur are always on display, but there are two of the richest people to ever exist in the world who will be hosting it.
“When we’re in the midst of a war, and there are so many people struggling to have their basic needs met, it’s not necessarily the image everyone wants to see.”
For now, Streep’s official position is simpler than the surrounding noise: she has been invited for years, she respects Wintour and Vogue, and the Met Gala is not her scene.
For an actor forever linked to one of cinema’s most famous fashion editors, that absence may be the most Streep-coded choice available.
