TUCCI? FOR SPRING? GROUNDBREAKING.

Considering how the actor has handled personal trials, professional triumphs, and internet adoration, it actually might be. Gird your loins.

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This month Stanley Tucci revisits his role as the endlessly quotable Nigel Kipling in the much anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2.

BRUNELLO CUCINELLI TRENCH COAT.

SIEGELSON FEATHER BROOCH BY PAUL FLATO, CIRCA 1940. OPPOSITE: DE BEERS LONDON NECKLACE. BOUCHERON ANIMAUX DE COLLECTION PANDA RING

The reservation is under Stanley Tucci's name, which is unusual. Most of the time there's a little more intrigue, perhaps even an alias, involved with meeting a celebrity in a public place. But when Tucci shows up at the café of a Manhattan hotel on a recent spring morning—head as smooth and shiny as a chestnut; dark-framed glasses as iconic as those worn by Colonel Sanders or Orville Redenbacher; conspiratorial smile intact—it's immediately, laughably clear how futile such maneuvers would be. When you look this much like Stanley Tucci, you really can't go around saying you're anyone else.

As ever, Tucci is perfectly poised, nattily attired in a crisp Zegna suit jacket and artisanal leather boots made in the Marche region of Italy. "I like a lace-up boot," he says, pulling up a pant leg so I can admire the stitching. "It's a little fancy." Despite the fact that he flew in from London last night and rose at dawn to teach Carson Daly how to make pizza on the Today show, there's no sign of fatigue, other than a slight rasp in his voice. He is battling a cold, he explains, as he attempts to flag a waiter down for a cup of tea. "I don't know why they're ignoring us," he says in a drawl that feels devastatingly familiar. You know the one: Wake up, Six.