MANKATO — The biggest movie-release party for “The Devil Wears Prada” was held at Stadium Cinema 6 in Mankato Saturday afternoon — that is, as far as Rich Sommer is concerned.

Sommer, 28, who plays Doug in the Meryl Streep comedy that opened Friday nationwide, is married to Mankato West High School graduate Virginia (Donohoe) Sommer. Virginia’s parents, Mike and Mary Donohoe of Mankato, were quite eager to show support for their son-in-law’s blooming Hollywood career.

So they gathered about 100 of their family and friends just outside the theater at about 3:45 p.m. to greet the Sommers with flashing cameras and applause before attending the 4:15 p.m. showing. They even rolled out a small red carpet.

At about 4 p.m., the couple pulled up and were all smiles when the cameras started flashing.

“There was a (premiere party), but that didn’t have much to do with me,” said Rich, who graduated from Stillwater Area High School in 1996 and went on to study theater at Concordia College in Moorhead.

“New York’s got nothing on Mankato,” Virginia said.

The couple, who live in Queens, N.Y., met while attending Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where Rich earned his master of fine arts in acting. Virginia, also an actress, is teaching acting classes in Central Park this summer.

After school they moved to Queens to find work, but moved back to Minnesota last summer, where Rich worked at Ordway Theatre in the box office. Three months after returning to Minnesota, his managers who he met at Case Western said their friend, involved in casting “The Devil Wears Prada,” thought there was a part for him.

But Sommer was asked to make a tape audition for the part, which any actor will tell you is useless during the audition process. So, after a few drinks with buddies on the Fourth of July 2005 at an apartment near Seven Corners in the Twin Cities, he made an audition tape with his mouth full of barbecued pork that he never thought would be seen by anyone important.

However, something in the tape floored the producers and director David Frankel. Another audition, a meeting with Frankel, and several long weeks of waiting later, and Rich got the call he landed the part while on his honeymoon in Grand Marais — the first big role of his career.

Rich plays a close friend of Anne Hathaway’s character, Andy, who gets a job as the assistant to one of New York’s biggest and most cynical magazine editors, Meryl Streep’s character Miranda Priestly.

He doesn’t have any scenes with Streep, but he was excited to have the opportunity to read lines with her once when another actor was absent. The excitement mounted after shooting, when he saw his name on the credits for the first time, and when he and Virginia attended the premiere two weeks ago.

“(It’s been) surreal and overwhelming,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was getting in to.”

Rich also is looking forward to seeing what happens with “Mad Men,” a series pilot he filmed for American Movie Classics channel about advertising executives in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Donohoes, who bought more than 100 movie tickets to pass out Saturday, said they’re proud of Rich’s success. Mary saw “The Devil Wears Prada” Friday and thought Rich did a great job.

She was excited to see the film again Saturday with the movie star, himself, present.

“We’re really looking forward to this,” Mary said.