The hits keep coming and they don’t stop coming for Don’t Worry Darling, and this weekend was a frenzy at the Venice Film Festival for the film’s premiere. I broke down everything that happened (while also making it clear that this is taking away from the movie) at the premiere because Twitter was alight with memes and buzz over what was going on at the press conference and on the carpet for the film. One of those big hit moments came when a video had people accusing Harry Styles of spitting on Chris Pine when the group was sitting down.
Now, in the video, it looks like the two are joking with each other, so whatever did happen seemed like a joke anyway, but it got to the point where Chris Pine’s reps had to comment on the incident, since everyone online was talking about it and coming up with theories.
Spit-gate is over
According to Variety, a rep for Pine told them, “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.”
Well, for now, it’s over. Yeah, sure, no matter what happened, representatives for these actors are going to quash things like this and keep them out of the news, and maybe he did and maybe he didn’t and I’m sure the internet will go on to discuss it for weeks to come. But for now, there has been a statement made, and I honestly hope it stays there. I’m not naive, though. I know it will not, but it does bring up the feeling that has been hanging around this movie for months, and that feeling is that the behind-the-scenes drama and emotions have completely overshadowed the movie.
Taking away from Don’t Worry Darling
I’ve talked before about how accusations of discord among the film’s cast and crew started on TikTok and have continued to grow into something that the cast is being asked about semi-regularly now. It started, and I thought, “This is a fun TikTok thing that will probably stay there,” but it has become something else entirely. There are aspects of this that reek of sexism and others that have you questioning whether or not things are true.
And while it may have gotten everyone talking about the movie, I’ve seen more people talking about not giving the film money because of all this, instead. Whatever “fun” we’re having online (and I know that I am part of it, I was posting memes), it is taking away from the release of this film because people are talking about it in such a way that I haven’t really seen anyone talk about the actual film.
It has been a media circus about feuds, who is or isn’t attending events, and what the lineup is in pictures, and it all does feel as if it is making a point about the movie and its themes in a way that would be a fascinating feat to pull off if that were the case.
Is this the point?
Getting into conspiracy theory territory with me for a second, imagine that all of this were planned—that they intentionally leaked that there was a “feud” between Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh, that this movie about power and sexism was having power struggles behind the scenes, which the internet and media reported on in just the way they would a female-led/female-directed film vs. how we would a male-dominated one.
Imagine that all of that was a commentary on our own society tied into the promotion for Don’t Worry Darling. That’d be pretty daring and something that I’d applaud, and it’d also make some of this make sense to me. I recognize that this is a wild conspiracy theory and that the reality is that this entire situation has just been turned up to 11 because of how on the pulse the internet is, but … it’d be kind of cool to use it all as a commentary for how people react to this sort of gossip.
—
Don’t Worry Darling hits theaters on September 23, 2022, and I hope that people are still as excited as I am to go and see it because I, personally, can’t wait.
(featured image: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)
