A video extract shot Monday during the premiere of the film Don’t Worry Darling at the Venice Film Festival divides internet users: did British singer Harry Styles spit on his colleague Chris Pine?
Posted at 5:13 p.m.
The controversial sequence, widely broadcast on TikTok and Twitter on Tuesday, shows the ex-One Direction who, before taking his seat, leans over and makes a subtle mouth gesture in the direction of his seat neighbor.
It is more the reaction of Chris Pine which leads Internet users to believe that the latter was the target of a voluntary sputter. The actor stops clapping and looks down at his knees before laughing dark yellow, bewildered. The American then retrieves a pair of glasses left between his legs, enough to cover his tracks. Some Internet users see this as the real source of his surprise.
Slowed down, put into context, zoomed in: the video evidence is tenuous, but some elements weigh against Harry Styles, according to the investigators of the living room. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the interpreter of Watermelon Sugar often indulged in a practice nicknamed “The Whale”: the singer filled his mouth with water before throwing it in the air, sometimes on his admirers.
It should also be noted that the promotional tour of Don’t Worry Darling, a psychological thriller by director Olivia Wilde, fuels rumors and gossip, starting with a disagreement between the filmmaker and her actress Florence Pugh. The departure of Shia Laboeuf, whose role was taken over by Harry Styles, also gave ammunition to the gossip press. A question about this at a press conference was dismissed by the moderator.
In short, the viral video of Harry Styles spitting (or not) on Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival is part of a tense climate behind the scenes of the American feature film.
On Tuesday, relatives of the British singer assured The Guardian that this story “was a complete fabrication and the result of a strange online illusion”. “There is only respect between these two men,” added the source in an interview with the British daily. Sworn spit?