Asian-Americans Are Calling For Boycott Of ‘Devil Wears Prada’ After “Racist” Teaser Released

The Devil Wears Prada 2has come under scrutiny for a scene deemed“racist”on social media, with users saying it includes outdated and harmful stereotypes about Asian culture.

The highly anticipated film, which starsAnne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, is set to hit theaters on May 1, a decade after the release of the original movie.

The sequel toThe Devil Wears Pradais facing backlash over the “racist” portrayal of an Asian-American character

Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

In the comedy-drama, Meryl plays Miranda Priestly, the cynical editor of the fictionalRunwayfashion magazine. Her character is loosely inspired byVogueeditor Anna Wintour.

Anne portrays Andy Sachs, an aspiring journalist who lands a job as Miranda’s assistant. The sequel sees Andy returning to the magazine, this time as the new Features Editor, with an assistant of her own: an Asian-American woman named Jin Chao.

In a clip from theupcoming filmshared by 20th Century Studios, Anne’s character is seen getting off an elevator and meeting her assistant, who is wearing glasses and dressed in a striped shirt and matching pants.

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“Are you Andy? Hi! I’m Jin Chao. I’m your new assistant,” she informs her. “I was an intern this morning…Nobody wanted to work in your department ‘cause it’s not actual fashion, so I just got it. Isn’t that cool?”

Insecure about whether she will be accepted, Jin, played by Helen J. Shen, tells Andy that she graduated from Yale and begins listing her credentials.

“I did go to Yale, 3.86 GPA, lead soprano of the [Yale singing group the Whiffenpoofs], and my ACT score was 36 on the very first time,” she says.

Anne Hathaway’s character, Andy, returns toRunwaymagazine and meets her new editor, Jin Chao, played by Helen J. Shen

Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

The short scene did not land well on social media, with one viewer writing on X, “Racist name? Check. Cheap stereotypes? Check. And that’s your ‘thank you’ to your most crucial overseas box office market?”

“Sounds exactly like ‘Ching Chong,’ bro—real suspicious,” noted another.

An X user based in South Asia asked, “We are in 2026… what made them think we’ll find this kind of racism funny?”

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“It’s 2026 and they’re still playing on the old Asians are nerdy/boring stereotypes. Her name, outfit and styling are…The Racist Wears Prada,” echoed a fourth viewer.

A separate viewer claimed the film was “made for white women,” noting, “Of course they used an awkward actress to represent the Asian woman. They are a huge threat when they are smart, successful, and attractive, and too many of them are in the real world.”

Outraged by the scene, many people called for a boycott of the film

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Many Asian-American social media users have called for a boycott of the film. “I was planning to watch this movie, but after seeing the trailer I found it racist, so I’ve decided not to see it,” admitted one critic.

“Nope! Not in the hell will anyone make me watch this film!” read another comment on the video posted by the film’s production company.

A Japanese user said, “It gives me chills. Did they use this scene in the promo because it’s ‘funny’? #BoycottTheDevilWearsPrada2.”

Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

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Speaking with theNew Jersey Monthly, Helen said her character, Jin, gets her own arc, in which she “steps into her own power, and she gets to flaunt that and use it to help.”

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The 26-year-old, who had her breakout role as Claire in Broadway’sMaybe Happy Endingin 2024, bonded withAnne Hathawayover their background in theater, particularly their experiences at the prestigious youth theater program at New Jersey’s Paper Mill Playhouse.

The sequel will see the return of Meryl Streep as the icy editor ofRunwaymagazine

Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

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“[Anne] led the room, and the piece, with such grace, strength and kindness,” Helen told the outlet. “There was efficiency and respect for everyone’s time.”

Amid her success on Broadway and her feature-film debut, the actress can’t help but reflect on how grateful she is to her parents.

“My parents came to New Jersey as immigrants and built a life in America,” she said. “They sacrificed so much to give me the opportunities I’m now experiencing.

“I’m a product of the place that I’m from and the people that I’ve met along the way.”

Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

Helen will also starin the CBS vampire comedy seriesEternally Yours, set to premiere this fall.

The Devil Wears Prada 2features the return of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci. It is directed by David Frankel, who helmed the first film.

The accusations of racism directed atThe Devil Wears Prada 2come days before its May 1 premiere

Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

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Image credits:20thCenturyStudios

Thesequelalso introduces new stars, including Helen, Kenneth Branagh, Rachel Bloom, Patrick Brammall, Lucy Liu, Justin Theroux, B.J. Novak, Caleb Hearon, Simone Ashley, Tibor Ravitz, and Pauline Chalamet.

Adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s novel about her experience working at a famous fashion magazine, the original 2006 film was a box office success and received two Academy Award nominations: Best Costume Design for Patricia Field and Best Actress for Meryl Streep.

“Any time Asian people are successful it’s because of racism. Got it,” wrote one viewer, as others continued to debate the scene

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byNeo

in

April 24, 2026

Asian-Americans Are Calling For Boycott Of ‘Devil Wears Prada’ After “Racist” Teaser Released

The Devil Wears Prada 2has come under scrutiny for a scene deemed“racist”on social media, with users saying it includes outdated and ha...

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Senate passes budget plan for ICE and Border Patrol in bid to reopen DHS

The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget plan that would fund ICE and Border Patrol over Democratic objections and sending it to the House.

The entire department has been shut down since mid-February as Democrats have demanded policy changes in the wake of fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. Republicans are now trying to fund the two immigration enforcement agencies through the complicated, time-consuming process called budget reconciliation, a maneuver that they also used to pass President Donald Trump’s package of tax and spending cuts last year with no Democratic votes.

“We have a multistep process ahead of us, but at the end Republicans will have helped ensure that America's borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

The budget process only requires a simple majority in the Senate, bypassing filibuster rules that require Republicans to find 60 votes on most bills when they only hold 53 seats. But it also comes with increased scrutiny from the Senate parliamentarian and a long, open-ended series of amendment votes at the beginning and the end of the process.

The Senate held the first series of votes through the night, starting Wednesday evening and into early Thursday morning, with Democrats proposing amendments to lower health care expenses and other costs in an effort to contrast with Republicans’ focus on Trump’s campaign of immigration enforcement.

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“Instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket costs,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

The Senate adopted the final resolution 50-48, just past 3:30 a.m.

A lengthy effort to reopen Homeland Security

Once the House approves the framework and the Senate Parliamentarian approves it, the two chambers can then move to pass the measure.

The Senate has already voted on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, but Republican leaders in the House say they won’t take that bill up until the Senate shows progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol, as well.

The $70 billion budget resolution would fund the two agencies for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Thune and other GOP leaders say they hope to keep the bill narrowly focused on ICE and Border Patrol and get it to Trump’s desk in the coming weeks, along with the rest of Homeland Security Department funding that has already passed the Senate.

But that could prove difficult as many in the party see the budget bill as the last real chance this year to enact their priorities. Republicans in both the Senate and House have pushed to add other items, including money for farmers and Trump’s proof of citizenship voting bill, called the SAVE America Act.

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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday, frustrated that the bill would not include parts of the SAVE America Act or other legislation.

RELATED STORY |ICE acting director Todd Lyons will resign at end of May, DHS says

“This is the last train leaving the station,” Kennedy said, predicting they would not be able to pass any other major bills ahead of November's midterm elections. But he withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed.

Democrats say reform needed at ICE and Border Patrol after shootings

Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.

After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the DHS funding lapsed with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

In March, the Senate passed the legislation by voice vote that would separate out ICE and Border Patrol and fund the rest of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration as security lines grew long at some airports. But Republicans in the House refused to consider it, saying they wouldn’t support any bill that didn’t include money for immigration enforcement.

Congress then left town for a two-week recess, leaving the issue unresolved. Trump has used executive orders to pay some department salaries in the meantime, but the future of those paychecks is uncertain.

Potential roadblocks in the House

During the recess, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that they would pursue a two-track approach — pass the Senate bill that includes most of the department’s funding through regular order and use the party-line bill to pass ICE and CBP funding.

Weeks later, though, Johnson has still not said when the House will take up the Senate’s legislation that would fund the rest of the department. And it is unclear if members of his GOP conference will unite behind the narrowed budget bill as some House Republicans have argued, like Sen. Kennedy, that they should add other priorities to the legislation.

Johnson said this week that the sequencing of the two bills is important. House lawmakers don’t want to see the rest of the department funded without ICE and Border Patrol, he said.

But Thune warned after the Senate vote that other parts of the Homeland Security Department may run out of money before they are able to finish the winding budget process and fund those two agencies. He said he hopes the adoption of the budget resolution is a signal to the House that “we're going to be following through."

“We'll see what they can do with it," Thune said. “And if they can't, I guess we will go to the next plan.”

byNeo

in

April 23, 2026

Senate passes budget plan for ICE and Border Patrol in bid to reopen DHS

The Senate took the first steps in a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday, voting to adopt a budget ...

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‘Stonehenge of the Amazon’ reveals secret of who lived in the rainforest before colonisation

Road construction in the Amazon, a process often linked to deforestation, is also revealing a rich ancient history. Archaeological surveys along the BR-156 highway in Brazil's northern state of Amapa have unearthed significant discoveries from long before European colonisation.

Among the findings from nine dig sites are pottery vases, potentially serving as funerary urns, alongside small artefacts crafted to resemble human faces. Lúcio Flávio Costa Leite, who manages the Archaeological Research Center at Amapa’s Institute for Scientific and Technological Research, described the complex nature of these projects, stating: "What we now about the region’s past is also tied to the opening created by these projects, which gives our relationship with them a somewhat ambivalent character." He added this new knowledge compels closer attention and "permanent protection measures."

These discoveries reinforce a growing understanding that the Amazon was far from a "human desert" before colonisation, but rather a landscape shaped by sophisticated, interconnected societies. The material unearthed along BR-156, for instance, includes pottery exhibiting multiple styles and techniques, reflecting cultural influences stretching from Brazil’s Para state to the Caribbean.

A team for the National Department of Transport Infrastructure meticulously cleaned and analysed the artefacts. Archaeologist Manoel Fabiano da Silva Santos described the excavated layers of Amazonian soil as a historical timeline. He explained that upper strata yielded items such as Portuguese porcelain and nails, indicative of European occupation, while deeper excavations uncovered "pottery and ceramics associated with earlier Indigenous presence, marking the site’s transition before and after the arrival of colonizers."

The artifacts will eventually go to Amapa's state collection, overseen by Costa Leite, which includes about 530,000 pieces. The oldest piece is around 6,140 years old, confirming a long human presence across Amapa, he said.

The artifacts offer insight into how ancient Indigenous societies lived, died and interacted with the rainforest.

“Here is something I often debate with my students -- we usually think of technology as computers and microchips,” Costa Leite said, walking through shelves of ancient pottery. “But all of this required careful reading of the landscape and deliberate choices of materials.”

One of the most impressive historic areas in Amapa is in the city of Calcoene, where a 1,000‑year‑old stone monument made up of 127 carved monoliths arranged in a circle about 30 meters (98 feet) in diameter, set in open grassland amid the rainforest and bordered by a slow river.

Some have dubbed the Archaeological Park of the Solstice the “Stonehenge of the Amazon” for its resemblance to the British monument. Researchers found that the stones were positioned so that during the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere they marked the exact point where the sun rises, said archaeologist Mariana Petry Cabral, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais who was part of the team that began digging at the site some two decades ago.

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“It’s hard to say exactly what all the stones mean, but what we do know is that they are not from the site itself. They were brought from other nearby locations,” she said.

Subsequent research and excavations found the site also served as a burial ground. Radiocarbon dating showed it was occupied for hundreds of years, beginning around 1,100 years ago, she said.

The site, discovered by scientists in 2005, can be visited with prior approval from Amapa’s Institute for Scientific and Technological Research. At the same time, the site is going through the process to become a national park, which will allow more people to visit.

Such archaeological sites are protected by Brazilian law, which prohibits them being altered. That adds a layer of protection for surrounding rainforest.

Modern archaeological and historical ecology research shows that Indigenous peoples not only lived in the Amazon for centuries but also shaped it. They managed and cultivated the landscape through long‑term, sustainable practices, said Eduardo Neves, an archaeologist professor at the University of Sao Paulo.

Neves has studied theAmazon rainforestfor more than 30 years and, since 2023, has led the Amazon Revealed project, which uses satellite scans to identify archaeological sites hidden beneath the forest canopy.

Scans have revealed roads linking archaeological sites and buried patterns in the rainforest that point to repeated occupation and deliberate landscape modification. Together, Neves said, the features suggest large settlements.

Archaeologistshad long suspected such connections, Neves added, but technology has made it possible to see their broader geographic reach. The scans show networks of roads connecting clusters of settlements across the forest, most clearly in southern Amazonas state and Acre.

“When people think of an Indigenous tribe, they often imagine a small village isolated in the middle of the forest. But evidence shows a high degree of interconnectivity linking different settlements,” Neves said.

“Amapa is a key piece that helps us see how dynamic and active these populations were, and how they maintained networks of exchange that have been in place for millennia,” Cabral said.

byNeo

in

April 23, 2026

‘Stonehenge of the Amazon’ reveals secret of who lived in the rainforest before colonisation

Road construction in the Amazon, a process often linked to deforestation, is also revealing a rich ancient history. Archaeological surv...

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“Storage Wars” Star Brandi Passante Shares Emotional Tribute to Darrell Sheets: ‘The Grief Is Endless’

Storage Wars star Brandi Passante said she was “at a loss for words” after Darrell Sheets' death at 67

NEED TO KNOW

• Passante reflected on losing loved ones to similar circumstances

• She urged fans to seek help, sharing the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

Brandi Passanteis speaking out following the death of her formerStorage WarscostarDarrell Sheets.

In an emotional Instagram post sharedhours after the news brokeon Wednesday, April 22, Passante, 45, said she was “at a loss for words” as she mourned Sheets, who died by an apparent suicide at age 67.

“I've known Darrell Sheets for many years,” she wrote. “I'm just so very sorry, to hear the circumstances of his passing. My heart hurts for Brandon, Zoe, and Kimber.”

Passante went on to reflect on her own personal experience with loss, revealing that she has “unfortunately lost a parent and a brother to similar situations,” before using her platform to urge others to seek help.

“I would like to say to everyone, if you are struggling, if you feel hopeless or like no one cares. I assure you they do!! You are not alone. Please reach out for help,” she continued. “You are not taking your pain away, you are transferring it to someone else. The grief from suicide is endless. There is always help… You can dial 988 on your phone to connect with a counselor and resources. Never suffer in silence!”

Alongside her message, Passante shared a smiling throwback selfie of herself with Sheets, with the late reality star pointing toward Passante as the two posed side by side.

Other photos in her slideshow included a snap of them filming together in front of a storage unit and another one of them on a talk show set.

Her tribute comes shortly after fellowStorage Warsstar René Nezhodaalso reacted publicly to Sheets' death.

In an Instagram video, Nezhoda clarified that while the two often clashed on screen, their rivalry didn't reflect their real-life relationship.

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“This was not an easy video to shoot. Unfortunately, Darrell Sheets took his own life. So he passed away,” Nezhoda said. “I know a lot of you guys think we hated each other because we competed a lot on the show… but deep down me and Darrell were friends.”

Nezhoda described Sheets as “a very hard worker” who deeply cared about his family, including his son Brandon and granddaughter Zoe, and alleged that the late star had been dealing with cyberbullying prior to his death.

“Guys, just because you watch us on television, doesn't mean you know us,” he added. “It doesn't entitle you to bully somebody.”

Officers responded to “a reported deceased individual” around 2 a.m. local time on April 22, the Lake Havasu City Police Department said in a press release. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The man was later identified as Sheets, a 67-year-old resident of Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Sheets rose to fame on A&E'sStorage Wars, in which he was known as “The Gambler” for his high-risk, high-reward bidding style. He frequently appeared alongside his son Brandon and became a fan favorite over the years.

“We are saddened by the passing of a beloved member of ourStorage Warsfamily, Darrell ‘The Gambler' Sheets. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time," an A&E spokesperson told PEOPLE.

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE's free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Sheets retired from the series in 2023 and later opened an antique shop in Arizona called Havasu Show Me Your Junk.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at988lifeline.org24/7.

Read the original article onPeople

byNeo

in

April 23, 2026

“Storage Wars” Star Brandi Passante Shares Emotional Tribute to Darrell Sheets: ‘The Grief Is Endless’

Storage Wars star Brandi Passante said she was “at a loss for words” after Darrell Sheets' death at 67 NEED TO KNOW ...

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