Andrea Sachs

Andrea Sachs is a fictional character and main protagonist of the novel The Devil Wears Prada and the movie of the same name. She was portrayed by Anne Hathaway in the movie.
Background
Andrea Sachs is a Northwestern University graduate from Avon, Connecticut majoring in journalism. Her family consists of her father, mother, sister (Jill), brother-in-law (Kyle),and nephew baby Isaac (Jill and Kyle's baby, who appeared later in the book). She has a boyfriend named Alex Fineman and her best friend is Lily Goodwin. Her family is mentioned to be Jewish.
Life in Runway and Elias-Clark
Andrea went straight for an interview at the Elias-Clark building just after she graduates from college. When she set foot in the prestigious magazine publishing building, she knew nothing about magazine publication, fashion or even the woman who would later become her boss, Miranda Priestly. All she ever heard from people around her was 'this was a job a million girls would die for!'. Somehow, she got through the interview and wounded up working as Miranda's junior assistant. Her colleague is Emily, who got promoted to the status of senior assistant recently after the other assistant, Allison, got promoted to the beauty department of Runway.
During her days in Runway magazine, Andrea found it hard to cope with her boss's demands. She would ask Andrea to do ridiculous things like finding her specialty items in Miami when she knew that her assistants were in New York. She would insist that Andrea buy the first copy of Harry Potter for her twins, Caroline and Cassidy. In addition, Andrea's job in Runway made it hard for her to stay in touch with her boyfriend, Alex and their relationship began to dwindle. The same goes to Lily and her family. She had turned down virtually every invitations from her friends to go for a drink or to hang out, giving the reason she can't leave her boss unattended. But on the bright side, her job often gives her the chance to grab Versace, Jimmy Choo, Marc Jacobs, and Prada labeled clothes, shoes and bags just to name a few, via the Closet, a special department in Runway that provides the staffs and models everything they need to impress Miranda.
One day, Emily was down with mononucleosis and she phoned Andrea to inform her that she is very sick and can't go to Paris with Miranda. Instead, Miranda wants Andrea to be in Paris. Andrea had a dilemma here as she cannot decide for herself whether she should go to Paris or just stay in New York. Finally, she went with Miranda to Paris. During one occasion, Miranda was informed that she will be receiving an award on behalf of Runway America. Miranda ordered Andrea to type out an entire speech in 30 minutes or so. Andrea did as she told, but her effort was in vain as Miranda turned to leave the award ceremony because she was impatient. Andrea went up stage on behalf of her and received the award for her, where everyone in the hall looked puzzled.
Back in the car after the ceremony, Miranda asked Andrea some personal questions, which Andrea answered quite smoothly. Miranda said that her future in magazine would be bright. After a while, Miranda gave Andrea one of her frantic phone calls, and commanded Andrea to renew her twins' passports in three hours. Andrea then realizes that her family and friends are more important and she is fast becoming Miranda Priestly No. 2. she left Miranda in Paris and held back to America.
Back at home, Andrea begins freelancing stories for magazines and develops a working relationship with Loretta, an editor at Seventeen. She is last shown going for an interview at the fictional magazine The Buzz.
Differences from the movie
In The Devil Wears Prada, Andrea Sachs lives with her boyfriend, Nate, who works as a cook. In the novel, Andrea's boyfriend is named Alex, he works as a public school teacher, and they do not live together. Andrea shares an apartment with two Indian girls, Shanti and Kendra, and later moves into an apartment with her friend Lily. At the end of the book, Lily and Andrea wind up staying with Andrea's family.
In the novel Andrea has blond hair, but in the movie she appears as brunette.
In the novel Andrea is a Jewish woman from Connecticut who recently graduated from Brown University. In the movie, however, she is arguably gentile, her family is located in the Cincinnati area (generally thought to be either the city or its Ohio side suburbs), and she graduated from Northwestern University.
The 'Christian' she meets in the movie is Christian Thompson and not Christian Collinsworth (likely to avoid confusion with the real life former NFL player/television anaylst of the same name). He is still a writer. In the novel, Andrea does not sleep with him but in the movie they have a one night stand.
In the novel, her colleague, Emily is nicer and shows more sympathy to Andrea than she does in the film, where she treats Andrea badly and resents her for being chosen to accompany Miranda to Paris. However, the novel states that Emily comes down with mononucleosis and asks Andrea to accompany Miranda to Paris.
In the movie, Andrea ends her career as Miranda's assistant by walking away and throwing her cell phone into a fountain when Miranda calls her. In the novel, Andrea tells Miranda off publicly and is fired immediately.
Andrea meets Miranda one last time in the movie when she sees Miranda in her chauffeured car. She smiles at her, but Miranda rolls up her window and gives a small smile in the car where Andrea cannot see it. In the novel, Andrea does not meet Miranda again but sees her new assistant doing the things she used to do when she was Miranda's assistant.
Andrea is considerably more hard-edged in the book. She is frequently angry and impatient, is a heavy smoker and uses profane language regularly. In the film she rarely uses bad language but instead employs euphemisms such as "shoot". In the novel she is also prone to bouts of extreme road rage. One of the things that was criticized about the book was Andrea's snobbery and her bad temper. In the film she is much more even tempered and is usually polite to everyone. She rarely, if ever, swears and does not smoke. She usually maintains her temper under the most drastic of situations although she is prone to panic attacks. The only display of aggression she exhibits during the film is angrily flinging the tray with Miranda's lunch on it (which she didn't want) into a sink.
In the book version, Andy is asked to procure the published, but not released Harry Potter book for Miranda's twins, but in the film version she is asked to acquire the unpublished manuscript (which she delivers thanks to Christian Thompson).

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