Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson Walk Valentino Show

by Harry Sheff

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson walked down the runway at the end of the Valentino show in Paris today, reprising their characters Derek Zoolander and Hansel in a publicity stunt to promote Zoolander 2.

Zoolander 2 At The Paris Fashion Week

After the show, they were given an audience backstage with Vogue editor Anna Wintour.

Zoolander, which came out in 2001, was a feature-length comedy based on a character Stiller created for a couple of shorts for the VH1 Fashion Awards in the late 1990s. Stiller and Wilson played remarkably vacuous male models who get caught up in a crazy plot by an evil fashion executive (Will Ferrell) to assassinate the prime minister of Malaysia. The film was full of parodies of the real fashion business: Zoolander’s name is a take-off on the names of male models Mark Vanderloo and Johnny Zander and the “Derelicte” fashion line is based on designer John Galliano’s 2000 collection. The movie is full of cameos, including Tom Ford, Tommy Hilfiger, Donatella Versace and Karl Lagerfeld—as well as many, many models.

Zoolander 2 is scheduled for theatrical release in February 2016. So far, Penelope Cruz, Christine Taylor and Will Ferrell have joined the cast.