Meryl Streep, when offered the role of Miranda Priestly in "The Devil Wears Prada", nearly turned it down. Not because the project felt commercial to her. Because she found the pay unacceptable. And she doubled it.

Now, with the premiere of "The Devil Wears Prada 2" and mixed reviews from critics, the stories about the original 2006 film are coming out again. The studio offered her a salary "appropriate for an actress of her profile". Streep replied that she was thinking of stepping back from acting altogether. And if they wanted her, they would have to double it.

The fee was doubled. Streep took the film. "The Devil Wears Prada" became one of the biggest hits of 2006 - and one of Streep's most recognisable roles in the past 25 years. Try to imagine the film without her. You can't. She's the central element.

Twenty years later, the sequel hit cinemas. The critics' verdicts are roughly the same: good, but it's not the original. Nostalgia with a glazed topping. A demand that we remember what it was like "when fashion was still treated as an art form".

For Macedonia, this story has a particular note. The Skopje premiere was held with cocktails and fashion screenings - a local imitation of the American model. The Balkans always show up to the premiere of something that has already passed elsewhere - and put it on as ceremoniously as if it were a world premiere.

But there's something more in the Streep story. When an acting icon doubles her own pay for a film no one yet thought of as her starring vehicle, that's a lesson in self-worth. How many Macedonian women today could speak to their employer like that? How many of them would see their salary doubled if they said the same sentence: "I'm thinking of stepping back, if I can't accept the offer the way it should be made"?