Ladies in charge — on screen

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By MATT SOERGEL
The Times-Union

Female bosses don’t come across too well in movies — and you can bet they’ll get their comeuppance eventually. Here are four examples.

Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly in “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006): Streep was eye-catchingly good as an icy, imperious and demanding magazine editor making the life of her new assistant (Anne Hathaway) just miserable. But this was more than just another nasty movie boss: Streep’s nuanced performance made her Miranda actually seem human, and smart, and awfully good at what she did. And she was much more of a kick than the rather vanilla Hathaway,

Sandra Bullock as Margaret Tate in “The Proposal” (2009): She’s a tyrannical New York book editor (clearly modeled after Streep in “Prada”) who has no personal life. About to be deported back to Canada, she arranges to marry her younger assistant (Ryan Reynolds). Bullock’s stubbornness makes the formula stuff here more interesting than it should be, but then she is required to undergo many indignities before proving she’s A Nice Person.

Demi Moore as Meredith Johnson in “Disclosure” (1994): Poor Michael Douglas: A lover from years ago (Moore) gets the promotion he thought was his, becomes his boss, tries to seduce him ... and then accuses him of sexual harassment. Moore — sleek and Stairmastered — was pure rottenness, climbing the corporate ladder by stomping on those below her. Truly a boss from hell.

Sigourney Weaver as Katharine Parker in “Working Girl” (1988): The story plays with the idea that women will work together in this man’s world of business, as Katharine acts all nice to her plucky new secretary, Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith). But no: All the while, she’s plotting to steal her smart ideas. There are some class distinctions drawn here, too: Katharine is that '80s creation, a yuppie, from aristocratic stock, while Tess is from big-haired, blue-collar Staten Island society. And it’s clear that Katharine will be brought low before the movie’s over.