Cracking Spitgate: A recap of all the Don’t Worry Darling Venice drama
A director vs. star feud, desperate lip locks and errant spit made for one of the most buzzy promo tours in recent memory
Aux News Jason Sudeikis
Are you tired of all the drama surrounding Olivia Wilde’s sophomore film? Has the Internet quite exhausted you by insisting they actually are worried, darling? Does it leave you baffled, bothered, bemused and bewildered that a movie generally averaging C- reviews has seized the attention of the film community so totally? Click away now, then, with this writer’s blessing; no good can come from continuing down this well-trod path, and with any luck, the furor will die down soon.
If you’re still here, then perhaps you, too, have felt the allure of a delicious promo tour drama the likes of which Hollywood hasn’t seen in years. (“Last time I followed a news event in real time this closely was Jan 6th,” wrote Twitter user @staidindoors, speaking for all the terminally online.) While tensions amidst the cast first arose on set, it all came to a head with the Venice Film Festival, where Don’t Worry Darling became the premiere that launched a thousand memes. As a matter of historical record, what follows is a recap of all the petty drama that occurred on Sunday, September 5.
First, some context. If you have somehow missed the multi-year saga of behind-the-scenes struggles on DWD, a hearty congratulations to you. Otherwise, you are probably already aware that Shia LaBeouf was first cast in the film shortly before being accused of domestic abuse; his specter loomed large over the Venice premiere after sharing evidence that suggested he was not fired from the movie, as Wilde had claimed. LaBeouf was replaced by pop star Harry Styles, with whom Wilde began a romantic relationship (the timeline of which is murky as it relates to her relationship with Jason Sudeikis). Lastly, somewhere along the line Wilde had a falling out with her leading lady Florence Pugh, possible reasons for which have been hotly speculated but never confirmed.
And this is where our story begins: with Pugh’s promotion responsibilities for DWD dwindling down to nothing but a red carpet appearance. For what it’s worth, it was reportedly always the plan that Pugh would miss most of the events in Venice (because of her Dune shooting schedule), and Wilde, as usual, only had glowing things to say about the actor during the film’s press conference.
Even without Pugh’s pointed absence, the Don’t Worry Darling press conference would have sent tongues wagging. The festival apparently blocked reporters from asking any questions about LaBeouf (per The New York Times); instead, Styles was given much airtime to say things like, “What I like about acting is the feeling that I have no idea what I’m doing.” The film’s other star, Chris Pine, birthed the first of many memes looking not-very-engaged with his translation headphones on. And within minutes of Wilde dismissing the “tabloid nonsense” around her star’s no-show, Pugh was arriving in Venice in an eye-catching purple ensemble and toasting the Internet with an Aperol Spritz. Cue another timeless meme.
Styles, who has been unfathomably famous since he was 16 years old and presumably media trained within an inch of his life, continued to struggle with articulating his thoughts about the film. “My favorite thing about the movie is like, it feels like a movie,” he said in another interview as his co-star looked on. Chris Pine is dissociating! crowed the Internet. You can see his soul leaving his body! Boom–another meme floods Twitter, and the day is far from over.
The red carpet for the premiere proved to be its own microcosm for Don’t Worry Darling’s issues. Pugh glowingly greeted co-star Nick Kroll and got her photo taken by Pine on a disposable camera (yep: meme’d). But when it came time for the group photos, the cast’s neutral members Pine, Gemma Chan, and Sydney Chandler were strategically deployed to separate Pugh, Wilde, and Styles. “It’s inspiring to see a woman push back and say no, and question everything, and it’s very exciting to see a woman do that, in and out, off camera,” Pugh said cryptically to one reporter. “And I’m so lucky I get to do that time and time again, especially with this movie.”
(Sidebar drama: Pugh’s stylist Rebecca Corbin-Murray shared photos of her client to Instagram with the telling caption, “Miss Flo,” a reference to Wilde’s controversial video message to Shia LaBeouf. Meanwhile, Wilde’s stylist, Kara Welch, shared an Instagram story that read only, “There’s always more to the story….”)
The awkwardness continued inside the theater as the stars were once again very intentionally placed. “[Whoever] made this seating arrangement has planned a wedding with divorced parents,” joked Twitter user Trina Watters. Pine delighted observers once again by putting on his sunglasses just before the lights went down: “oh that man is taking a nap,” tweeted @tracesofswift. The memes keep churning.
Despite the subsequent trouncing by critics, the Venice audience gave the film a warm response. For those of you on Clap Watch, Variety claims the four-minute ovation “would probably have gone on longer if Pugh hadn’t made her way for the exit about three minutes into the clapping.” Instead, the reportedly “teary-eyed” star only stuck around to snub her director, with Variety’s Ramin Setoodeh tweeting that Pugh “[refused] to make eye contact with Olivia Wilde.” Going for broke after what was surely one of the messiest days in festival history, Styles gave Kroll a congratulatory kiss on the lips, queerbaiting critics be damned. At that point, why not?
Then, just as it seemed the chaos was finally over and the jokes had all been filed to Know Your Meme, Them editor Michael Cuby stirred up a new drama by tweeting at Harry Styles, “Did you or did you not spit on Chris Pine?” And thus, Spitgate was born.
The video was deleted, but not before being clipped, gifed, slow-mo’d, investigated, and yes, meme’d to an inch of its life. It depicted Styles approaching his seat next to Pine, who stopped clapping, looked down at his lap, and laughed. A suspicious movement around Styles’ mouth supported the theory that he had, in fact, spit on Pine, and Twitter fairly exploded with jokes.
Whether Styles actually spit on Pine is less important than the pure amusement so many of us derived from it, but in the interest of the historical record, this writer will admit it seems unlikely. As author Bolu Babalola pointed out, Pine “made no move to wipe” any spit from his lap. Plus, in zoomed-in versions of the clip, Styles’ lips seem to be pressed together. Other explanations have been put forward for Pine’s paused applause, from the dramatic (he was waiting to see if the ostensibly dating Styles and Wilde would speak to each other, and laughed when they didn’t) to the mundane (he lost track of his sunglasses and laughed realizing they were right in his lap). Sadly, we may never know the truth.
And so, we come to the end of the Don’t Worry Darling Venice saga—but not nearly to the end of the DWD saga as a whole. There are actually two whole weeks left before this movie is released, and if the festival premiere was anything to go by, that’s plenty of time for more ridiculousness. Whether you welcome continued chaos or are fatigued by it, there certainly hasn’t been a press tour like it in recent memory. As to whether this will drive audiences to theaters (even with those negative reviews)… don’t worry, darling, it seems this film will do just fine.
52 Comments
lol I sort of enjoy that the internet is in on how silly this all is at this point. it’s kind of taken on a very old Hollywood drama narrative.The pile on of Wilde seemed unnecessary when comparatively her behaviour wasn’t that bad in relation to her male directing contemporaries (the double standard argument is silly). she just has such an evasive new age way with language that she doesn’t always seem very genuine.The movie looks like a very beautifully shot episode of the Twilight Zone.
“(the double standard argument is silly)“
You LITERALLY just made the double standard argument.
Uh… she fucked her lead male actor while married. She’s literal trash.
To be fair, most of Olivia Wilde’s male director contemporaries are not as well known. She has an abundance of film and tv under her belt and was in a long term relationship with a beloved SnL/Ted Lasso actor. Her treatment is on the level of Brad Pitt and all that went down with both his ex-wives!
Not for nothing he could have spit and it landed on the floor between Pine’s legs, or maybe Pine didnt wipe or react in the moment until the video ended because he was trying to be super professional.Obviously the reason why its likely that he didnt spit on Chris Pine, is because there has been no reported beef between them and were doing all the press together, even if Chris was disassociating.
From what we know, that set was full of hot people destroying marriages and relationships. So maybe Styles and Pine did have a beef, or each others beefs at some point
I actually like the spit theory. Chris Pine looks like he good-naturedly cracks up. In my head it’s a wacky prank they both found hysterical.
Are you tired of all the drama surrounding Olivia Wilde’s sophomore film? Has the Internet quite exhausted you by insisting they actually are worried, darling? Does it leave you baffled, bothered, bemused and bewildered that a movie generally averaging C- reviews has seized the attention of the film community so totally? Click away now, then, with this writer’s blessing; no good can come from continuing down this well-trod path, and with any luck, the furor will die down soon.You are literally the only reason this furore won’t die. You. You’re not the oncologist; you’re the tumour.
Pretty sure both are actually acceptable in the context used.
“Furor” is a correct spelling.
For North America. Maybe Maul is a Brit?
He’s clearly Australian, judging from his profile pic.
All we can tell from his profile pic is that he’s clearly concerned about whether or not his bidet is working.Seriously though, am I the only one who keeps even light track of commenters here? Maul is hilariously mistaken for American like three times a week (thrice a calendarwozzer?)
AVC is a Chicago Los Angeles based publication, so American spelling is correct.
What the fuck is that collar on Styles? I mean, the world is on its ass when Nick Fucking Kroll is the best dressed of the male stars in that picture.
“Whether Styles actually spit on Pine is less important than the pure amusement so many of us derived from it”Is it? Is it though?
reporting on what happened isnt as important as reporting on what they (and assumingly everyone else) wished happened
The AVClub.
The real spit is the friends we made along the way
IIf you’re going to gossip at such a length as this, shouldn’t you at least offer *some* theory as to the reason behind this alleged Pugh/Wilde spat?
Right? I only read it because I hadn’t heard about the spitting and I wanted to see what that was about, but before they even get to the spit it’s 10 damn paragraphs of cryptic gossip about Pugh and Wilde which doesn’t actually tell us anything at all. I’m sorry I read this. The part about the spitting was underwhelming too, but that’s my fault for even having a moment of interest in this nonsense.
There are a lot of unverified rumors along with leaked communications involving Shia… but one actually doesn’t need to resort to them to discuss one possible rift between Pugh & Wilde. In an interview, the former has said she dislikes the focus on the sex scenes in the film, which feels reductionist to her and diminishes the rest of the film. Even after her lead said that (and Pugh hasn’t talked much about the film), Wilde has doubled down on that marketing angle and complained that the MPAA wouldn’t let her include even more in the trailer.
I thought it all stemmed from the fact that Pugh and Zach Braff were very good friends with Jason Sudeikis and they didn’t care for the way Olivia Wilde handled their break up/affair with Styles.
Take your pick. Pugh was originally cast against an (alleged?) abuser in Shia. Wilde definitely seemed to take LeBouf’s side in the split, based on the video Shia released after Wilde said she fired Shia off the movie. (That’s where the “Miss Flo” thing comes from.)Then the director started hooking up with the replacement leading man during the filming of the movie. Add in that Wilde was doing so while publicly in a relationship with Jason Sudekis, who is friends with the guy Pugh was dating at the time, Zach Braff.Then there was the promotional / marketing differences, where Wilde wanted to talk up the sexy sexiness of Harry Styles producing “female pleasure,” whereas Pugh wanted the focus to be on other things (presumably the acting).
Completely agree, but I just had to share this 😉
As someone who is just now catching up on all of this, this tweet made me laugh very, very hard.
Okay I have kinda looped around to enjoying all this coverage as an absurdist art piece. Maybe its just Stockholm syndromeAnyways my biggest take is imagine making a movie with all these people and deciding to destroy your marriage by fucking Harry Styles! If Wilde hooked up with Chris Pine, we get that. Florence Pugh, totally get that. Emma Chan, hell yeah. Even fucking Nick Kroll!
I mean, lampshaded, snarky gossip is *still* gossip. That said, I don’t really bear the writers any ill will; they are just serfs in this attention economy.
Yes. And despite all their rage, they are still just rats in a caaaaaaaaaaaaaaage.
Fuck I honestly thought I was reading Jezebel for this entire article.This was straight tabloid trash.
This was actually a very fun read. Thank you.
Gemma Chan doesn’t deserve to be associated with this dumpster fire.
This is the low-rent gossip gift that keeps on giving.
Nick fucking Kroll is in this? I like the guy, but why?
‘___gate’ has been retired.
Call this Spit-a-lago.
Mar-a-loogie was right there.
Wow this is all so weird. What was Wilde supposed to have done to Pugh, anyway?
Whew, thank you for including those insightful comments from random twitter users, I don’t know where we’d be without their trenchant commentary or deep insights.
Cue another timeless meme.What is timelessness in 2022? Three days.A Zen koan.
NYC thin crust or Chicago deep dish? Say, how ‘bout that Liz Truss? Anyone else think The Master is a better, truer love story than Punch Drunk Love?Anything. Anything at all.
I’m super pissed about that poor woman in Tennessee. Jesus. Her poor family. Her poor students. Usually I’m fairly anti-death penalty, but if anyone deserves it, this piece of human scum they caught red-handed does.
Some whiplash moving from movie gossip to capital punishment, but OK. I would say if someone is against the death penalty, they should be against the death penalty. It’s a role-of-government/ethics/deterrent efficacy argument, not a sliding scale of what we believe people deserve. Public safety would be addressed by a life sentence and that seems like a pretty likely outcome here. But yes, that’s incredibly tragic and terrifying. Not much to say about the people who lost a loved one except I hope they find a way to move forward. Not sure if I could.
You make a good argument regarding the death penalty. It really can’t be one of those things you’re against unless the convicted individual is just really, really bad. I guess that in the end I do support the death penalty, but with a lot of conditions in place. For what it’s worth.
I mean, people like Tim McVeigh or John Wayne Gacy absolutely deserved it. But our justice system isn’t near perfect enough to make sure everyone who gets the death penalty is on the level of McVeigh or Gacy
You’re in a TMZ rabbit hole. Get out now.
I wonder if the studio is delighted or horrified by all this extra press coverage for a movie that otherwise would have disappeared without a trace? On the one hand, there’s no such thing as bad press. On the other hand, is anyone really going to buy a ticket because of all this BTS drama?
So like the tenth blog post about this stupid movie and the pointless drama surrounding it, still no Rick and Morty review.
Zack Handlen is MIA, Patrick. Let it go. There will be no review.
…this place fucking sucks.
It’s weird, though. They adamantly refuse to ungrey people and seem to have nothing but disdain for us, and yet we keep coming back. For me, it’s inertia. I’ve been reading the AV Club daily for decades at this point. I can’t quit it.
Okay, let’s say you’re Olivia Wilde. You’ve directed a film, which in all fairness makes it “yours” in Hollywood. But you have two young, red-hot stars in your movie as the leads. Do you:Ask the photographer to center your leads and hang out at the side, letting your stars have the spotlight, orGet right in the center, letting your ridiculously “in-girl” star stand at the side with Nick Kroll? I mean…honestly. Optics. People already think you’re making this movie all about you, Olivia Wilde. As a wise turtle and a band from Boston once said, get a grip.