When it comes to Harry Styles and Chris Pine’s ‘Spitgate’, there’s a simple explanation

If the chaos and gossip surrounding ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ shows us anything, we readers love a bit of drama – no matter how ridiculous or bizzare, writes Clemence Michallon

Did Harry Styles hurl his saliva in Chris Pines’ direction? Probably not... (Getty)

There was once a time when the mention of the film Don’t Worry Darling triggered nothing but excitement in me. I was looking forward to this film in the purest way. The trailer, which has aired before practically every film I’ve seen recently in the US, promised a dark tale of domesticity gone wrong. I wasn’t able to tell exactly what the plot would be, but I didn’t need to be told the details: all I knew was that this was going to be a story about wives living in a falsely idyllic community, under the watchful gazes of their (lying?) husbands, and that one of them was going to face some amount of danger in a quest for the truth.

I was intrigued by the cast, too: Florence Pugh in the lead role? Yes! Harry Styles as her husband? Sure! Gemma Chan? Absolutely! Chris Pine as the apparent leader of whatever ominous project the wives are trapped in? Deal me in! And then, the promotion started, and with it, the drama. So much drama that the words Don’t Worry Darling come with this additional layer: the noises, the memes, the confusion.

I’m still excited to see the film, mind you. But it’s been… interesting to watch it all unfold from afar, for sure. The details are too convoluted to get into here – this timeline, however, will provide a thorough walk-through – but rumours of feuds and alleged disputes among the cast have been making headlines for weeks. Things came to a head at the Venice Film Festival, which was attended by the cast of Don’t Worry Darling on Monday (5 September).

A brief clip of the film’s actors settling for a screening was enough to launch a thousand rumours and takes. In the video – which lasts 11 seconds – Harry Styles is seen… leaning forward slightly as he goes to sit down. In doing so, he hovers briefly over his co-star Chris Pine. Some muscles on Harry Styles’s face appear to contract for a brief moment. Chris Pine looks down and smiles, then picks up a pair of sunglasses that had been placed on his seat, between his legs. Harry Styles finishes sitting down and adjusts his jacket.

Because of the perceived movements of Harry Styles’s face, some people became convinced that he had spat on Chris Pine. To rephrase: some people were pretty sure that Harry Styles, one of the most famous people in the world, had spat on his co-star, in public, at one of the biggest industry events of the year, knowing full well he was on camera. Thus was born “Spitgate”.

It’s a testament to the volatility of the discourse that has surrounded Don’t Worry Darling that for a brief, absurd moment, that ludicrous theory seemed… kind of believable. And, I mean, of course Harry Styles didn’t spit on Chris Pine. I’m sorry! Things just aren’t that interesting! We live in a much more normal world than this! Hollywood drama tends to play out away from our prying eyes, in weird, impalpable ways – not in perfectly Tik-Tok-sized video clips.

A rep for Chris Pine echoed this, ​​telling People the claims that Styles spit on his client are “ridiculous” and “a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation.” “Just to be clear,” the rep added, “Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine.”

If you watch the video, you’ll see so many other possible explanations for why the clip looks the way it does – the likeliest of which is that nothing actually happened and two men happened to move in a certain way at the same time, and… voila.

I understand the impulse to speculate. But if this episode has reminded me of anything, it’s that the simplest explanation is usually the most accurate – in celebrity matters and in everything else.

Yours,

Clémence Michallon

Senior people writer