Olivia Wilde, You're Two Weeks Late to the SpitGate Chat
Reader, I can hardly believe that I’m coming to you on Steve Jobs’s Internet to ask one single, horrifying question: Did Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine?!
Allow me to explain. A video from early September's Venice Film Festival premiere of Don’t Worry Darling shows Styles taking a seat beside his co-star—and seemingly hocking a loogie right into his lap. In the footage, Pine freezes mid-clap and stares disbelievingly into his lap, then smiles and laughs to himself. Styles, for his part, looks forward with the placid who, me?! expression we’ve all used on our mothers after doing something uncouth. It seems entirely unlikely that one of our biggest pop stars would spit on Hollywood’s Best Chris (yeah, I said it!) in front of the entire global press, but that’s the mind-boggling thing—when you watch the video, your eyes don’t lie.
Meanwhile, Pine's representatives are out here gaslighting (kidding, maybe) us, telling People, "This is a ridiculous story—a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation. Just to be clear, Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine. There is nothing but respect between these two men and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist." Styles' team has not commented, but Styles himself made light of the situation at his Madison Square Garden concert, joking to the crowd, "Wonderful to be back in New York! I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine." Man's got jokes!
A full two weeks later, the director of the film, Ms. Shia, Shia! herself, Olivia Wilde, addressed the incident on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Clearly teasing, Colbert asked, "Did Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine, why or why not? Support your answer." Wilde replied, "No, he did not. But I think it’s a perfect example of like, people will look for drama anywhere they can. Harry did not spit on Chris." The whole time, Wilde is lurching back and forth in a weird, nervous laughing fit, the energy one probably gets from playing whack-a-mole for two months over the massive amount of beef emanating from your film.
SpitGate is just the latest installment in months of bizarre rumors swirling around Don’t Worry Darling. Ever since star Florence Pugh failed to promote the film on social media back in July, it’s been rumored that Pugh and Wilde have fallen out over Wilde’s alleged "lack of professionalism." The drama went nuclear a few weeks ago when Wilde spoke to Variety about firing Shia LaBeouf from the film and bringing in Styles as his replacement, claiming that she did so over LaBeouf’s “combative energy” in an effort to keep Pugh “safe.” LaBeouf disputed her recollection of events, hitting back with a staggering amount of text and email receipts asserting that he quit the film. In one leaked video message from 2020, Wilde pleads with LaBeouf not to quit, seeming to blame Pugh for failing to collaborate with the actor (who faces allegations of abusive behavior).
As all this drama swirls, fellow Don’t Worry Darling stars like Pine, Gemma Chan, and Nick Kroll have gone full Switzerland. But in Venice, the tide may have turned. Pugh declined to join her co-stars in promoting the film in press conferences, but Pine made headlines in her absence, appearing to downright dissociate in an interview alongside Styles. By contrast, he enthusiastically acted as Pugh’s personal hype man on the red carpet, snapping pictures of her looking glamorous. This all comes on the heels of Pine effusing about Pugh, "I don’t know if there’s anyone better. To be so young and so in charge of her craft... she’s such a kind person and a giving actor. I love her to death.”
If Styles did spit on Pine, could it be because he seemingly sided with Pugh in this supposed ongoing feud? The good people of Twitter sure think so. As the video spread, Twitter erupted over SpitGate, with armchair detectives analyzing the footage late into the wee hours of the morning. Below, we’ve rounded up the best of what eagle-eyed Twitter users are saying.
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