Bette Midler’s 1988 Film ‘Big Business’ Is Going Viral as New Audiences Realize She Was the Original Miranda Priestly

Bette Midler caused an office to quake in fear way before Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestley did. 

A clip from 1988’s Big Business, posted on October 25, went viral on Instagram as the poster, Kendall LeJeune, pointed out the similarities between Midler’s entrance into her business and Streep’s in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada.

In Big Business, which adapted Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors, Midler, 79, and Lily Tomlin played two sets of twin sisters who are mixed up at birth. Midler and Tomlin’s Sadie and Rose Shelton run their father’s company Moramax, with Sadie finding her footing as a ruthless businesswoman. Meanwhile, Sadie and Rose Ratliff head to New York when Sadie Shelton tries to sell Hollowmade Factory, where Rose works. 

LeJeune wrote under the clip, “Watch how every single person reacts. The phone scramble. The posture corrections. The collective panic disguised as professionalism. That’s what power looks like before anyone says a word. Every reaction timed. Every beat choreographed.”

He continued, “The way my 7-year-old brain catalogued THIS as the original power entrance. The Devil Wears Prada gets all the credit, but this scene wrote the playbook first. The elevator entrance. The walk. The silent terror. All here. 1988.”

In The Devil Wears Prada, Streep’s Miranda makes a very similar entrance into the Runway office. The workers chaotically run around to prepare as Priestley walks from the car to the building, past security and into an elevator. When she arrives at her destination, viewers finally see her face, and then she walks around the office, giving notes to her assistant, played by Emily Blunt.

Fans in the comments also pointed out the similarities between the two movies. One person wrote, “Sadie Shelton walked so Miranda Priestly could run. Bette deserved a special Oscar for ‘Best Eye Acting’ for this!”

Another wrote, “THANK YOU! I honestly thought The Devil Wears Prada was doing an obvious homage to this scene and then was shocked when people didn’t reference Big Business! Thank you!” Others fondly remembered loving the movie as kids and often checking the VHS out from the video store.

Big Business was a modest success for Disney, earning $40 million at the box office. At the time, PEOPLE noted that it was the only major comedy of that summer that starred women. The critic wrote, “The double scoop of Midler and Tomlin is irresistible; they make a red-hot, roaringly funny comedy team.”

Midler told PEOPLE of her and Tomlin, “I think we’re as funny as it gets in America as far as women are concerned.” Tomlin added of their bond, “We have a real affection for each other.”

Midler, of course, made another Disney film in 1993: Hocus Pocus. She returned for a sequel in 2022, and a third film is in development.  

Meanwhile, Streep will reprise her role as Miranda in The Devil Wears Prada 2 next May.