It feels like the drama surrounding Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling is only getting stranger by the day. While things seemed awkward coming out of the past week, they took an interesting turn during the highly anticipated film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival this past weekend. Amid the proceedings, a video dropped online that has fans convinced that Harry Styles spat on Chris Pine. Now, Pine’s agent is speaking out and addressing the claims.
The video clip, which has reportedly racked up 1.4 million views since it hit the web this weekend, shows the cast being seated in the theater just ahead of the screening. The video shows both Olivia Wilde and Chris Pine sitting in their row. When Harry Styles joins them and takes his seat, the singer's body language seemed to suggest that the singer spits on his co-star. A representative for Pine responded to the viral controversy via a statement sent to Variety, and they vehemently denied the idea that such a thing really happened:
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.
Sources for the trade also seem to back up the rep’s statements. To Variety’s knowledge, there was no sort of tension between the two stars as they promoted their production at the festival. The news outlet also reports that no spitting incident of any kind was called out by anyone attending the premiere.
This alleged spitting incident comes in the midst of purported drama involving Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles. The One Direction alum was brought in to replace Shia LaBeouf after he was reportedly fired from the production. At the end of August, however, LaBeouf asserted that he was not fired from the production but chose to quit and provided emails to back up his claims. A leaked video of Wilde also showed the director asking LaBeouf to consider returning to the production.
A moment that really stood out for that video was when Olivia Wilde asserted that Shia LaBeouf’s return could be something of “a wake-up call for Miss Flo,” referencing Florence Pugh. Shortly after this news surfaced, it was reported that Pugh would be doing limited press for Don’t Worry Darling. When speaking to the online gossip, Wilde called Pugh “a force” and stated that she doesn’t feel the “need” to add to any rumors.
Aside from the spitting speculation, Chris Pine has mostly stayed out of the drama amongst his castmates. It’s hard to imagine any other kind of drama cropping up ahead of the movie’s release but, then again, we’ve been surprised before.
Don’t Worry Darling opens in theaters on September 23 as part of the schedule of 2022 movie releases.
