Harry Styles has been accused of spitting at co-star Chris Pine at the Don't Worry Darling premiere in Venice. Photo / Twitter
For a movie titled Don't Worry Darling, it's fair to say producers are probably worrying a lot.
The New Line Cinema psychological thriller has been plagued by bad publicity for months now, building up to Tuesday's viral moment – Harry Styles seemingly spitting on co-star Chris Pine at the film's Venice Film Festival premiere.
In the shocking clip being shared on social media, Styles is seen walking into the premiere to raucous applause before appearing to spit at Pine, 42, as he takes a seat next to him.
While it's hard to believe the 28-year-old former One Direction heart-throb would stoop to such a level, Pine's bewildered facial expression was enough to signal something untoward happened.
#HarryStyles appears to spit on Chris Pine i won't sleep until i know the truth pic.twitter.com/wLXjIHTYgU
— JZMaclin (@Mac70J) September 6, 2022
It's unclear why these two would have beef, with Pine having escaped the negative headlines surrounding the movie, at least, until now.
But given the twists and turns that have engulfed Don't Worry Darling, slated for release in theatres in October, there's a high likelihood there's even more spicy drama that went down on set.
Here's everything we know:
In what marked her second go in the director's chair, 38-year-old US actress Wilde attracted 18 bids from production companies wanting to finance her movie back in 2019, with New Line Cinema ultimately winning the auction.
The following year, emerging UK actress Florence Pugh, 26, signed on to star as the DWD lead, with Shia LaBeouf, 36, cast as her love interest. However, a few short months later, LaBeouf dropped out citing "scheduling conflicts", and was quickly replaced by Styles. More on that later.
When filming kicked off in October 2020, Wilde was still in a high-profile relationship with Ted Lasso actor Jason Sudeikis, with whom she shares two children.
But in November, they announced their shock split after nine years together and by January, Wilde was pictured hand-in-hand with Styles at a wedding.
At the time, sources cited Wilde's relationship with Styles as the main reason for her engagement breakdown, with one insider telling Page Six the affair had been ongoing for a month, leaving Sudeikis distraught.
"Jason and the kids visited Olivia on set at the beginning a few times, so I think this all made people feel a little uncomfortable," the insider said this week.
Reports emerged in early August that Styles was paid significantly more than Pugh, despite being a secondary character.
Multiple outlets claimed Styles was paid US$2.5 million for his role, while Pugh received US$700,000. But in a recent interview with Variety, Wilde denied the report.
"There has been a lot out there that I largely don't pay attention to," the actor explained. "But the absurdity of invented clickbait and subsequent reaction regarding a non-existent pay disparity between our lead and supporting actors really upset me."
Taking to Instagram after filming finished in February 2021, Wilde publicly praised Styles for stepping in to star as a secondary character to Pugh, adding it was "hard" to find male actors willing to do so.
She wrote: "The industry has raised them (men) to believe it lessens their power (i.e. financial value) to accept these roles, which is one of the reasons it's so hard to get financing for movies focusing on female stories," Wilde wrote.
"Enter: @harrystyles, our 'Jack'. Not only did he relish the opportunity to allow for the brilliant @florencepugh to hold centre stage as our 'Alice', but he infused every scene with a nuanced sense of humanity."
Shortly after pay gap reports emerged, the rumour mill began swirling yet again. This time, that Wilde had fallen out with Pugh.
"I can tell you for a fact that Flo seeing Olivia and Harry all over each other on set did not go down well as Olivia was still with Jason when she first hooked up with Harry," one insider told The New York Post, referring to Sudeikis.
Further, internet users found it telling that Pugh failed to "like" a post in which Wilde included the full official trailer for Don't Worry Darling last month.
Wilde followed that up by posting a photo of Pugh with the comment: "Watching this woman work was such a f***ing thrill! Cannot wait to show you more."
Pugh, again, didn't acknowledge the post. Yet on the same day, she posted a teaser trailer for another new project, Oppenheimer, about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so-called father of the atomic bomb.
Reports of a falling out intensified when Pugh skipped the DWD photocall in Venice at the weekend.
When the Black Widow actress finally arrived in the Italian city for the premiere, eagle-eyed spectators noted Pugh and Wilde didn't once interact with each other.
They were also separated by co-stars when posing on the red carpet, where Pugh gave some insightful comments to a reporter who asked her if she felt her role was "inspiring."
"I think it's very inspiring for a woman to push back and say no and question everything … On and off camera," Pugh said.
Inside the theatre, the duo were seated on opposite sides of their star-studded row, while video also showed Pugh refusing to make eye contact with her director when the movie received a four-minute standing ovation.
Florence Pugh refuses to make eye contact with Olivia Wilde during the 4-minute #Venezia79 standing ovation for #DontWorryDarling. pic.twitter.com/Xi6lJyZHbj
— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) September 5, 2022
Just days prior to the Venice premiere, Wilde was accused of lying in her Variety interview when she claimed she axed LaBeouf from the project to keep her cast "safe", following reports Pugh didn't want to work with the alleged abuser.
However, LaBeouf clapped back at Wilde's allegations in a subsequent email to Variety, sending the magazine screenshots of texts Wilde allegedly sent him in August 2020 after he expressed a desire to quit.
"Doesn't feel good to say no to someone, and I respect your honesty," Wilde purportedly wrote in one text. "I'm gutted because it could have been something special."
LaBeouf claimed that he "officially" quit the day after he received that message.
Shortly after the article, a video of Wilde begging LaBeouf to stay on DWD was leaked.
"I wanted to reach out because I feel like I'm not ready to give up on this yet," Wilde was seen saying in a selfie video.
After Olivia Wilde claimed Shia LaBeouf was fired from her movie ‘Don't Worry Darling,’ a video of her asking the actor to reconsider his decision to leave the film has leaked.
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 26, 2022
He was originally set to play Harry Styles’ role alongside Florence Pugh.
pic.twitter.com/zGSfm8N0Wj
"I, too, am heartbroken, and I want to figure this out," she added.
"I think this might be a bit of a wake-up call for Miss Flo, and I want to know if you're open to giving this a shot with me, with us.
"If she really commits, if she really puts her mind and heart into it at this point, and if you guys can make peace — and I respect your point of view, I respect hers — but if you guys can do it, what do you think?"
While unrelated to the rumours of a cast divide, DWD was hit with more drama when Wilde was served custody papers during a live presentation at CinemaCon in April.
The director was presenting DWD during the Warner Bros. segment of the event in Las Vegas when a mystery woman handed her a yellow manila envelope marked "personal and confidential".
Wilde paused her speech in front of a crowd of 3000 people, saying, "This for me?"
She then opened it and gave it a quick glance, before swiftly moving on to playing the movie trailer without addressing the contents.
It soon emerged Wilde was served with custody papers from Sudeikis, which she later dubbed "vicious".
"In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack," she told Variety.
"It was really upsetting. It shouldn't have been able to happen. There was a huge breach in security, which is really scary.
"The hurdles that you had to jump through to get into that room with several badges, plus special Covid tests that had to be taken days in advance, which gave you wristbands that were necessary to gain access to the event – this was something that required forethought."
The Kiwi actor has been part of the Star Wars universe for more than 20 years.