Chris Pine Says Harry Styles Did Not Spit on Him

Chris Pine has resurrected the near-ancient drama between him and his Don't Worry Darling co-star Harry Styles, after the two had a run-in at Cannes in September 2022. In an interview with Esquire, Pine revealed, "Harry did not spit on me. Harry is a very kind guy."

Harry is a very kind guy!

When showed a video of the alleged incident, he explained: "I was on the plane with my publicist, who says I look like Rachel from Friends. We're flying back from Venice I'm sleeping and having a great time on the plane. I love planes. And she wakes me up in a state and says we have to craft a message about what happened in Venice. And I was like, about what? 'About Harry spitting on you.'"

He agrees that it does look like the singer had spit in his lap, what actually transpired was an inside joke between them. Apparently, Styles told him something to the effect of "It's just words, man." Confusing, sure, but Pine chalks it up to jet lag, saying that often when jet-lagged, the two would mix-up words in interviews, hence "it's just words."

A few days after the incident, Styles joked to fans at a concert about his alleged beef with Chris. "Just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine. But fret not, we're back!"

The incident likely wouldn't have made headlines at all, were it not for the other feud tearing the cast apart that week in Venice. As numerous outlets reported at the time, rumors of on-set turmoil plagued Don't Worry Darling since Shia LaBeouf was ousted from the film and replaced by Styles, who'd go on to briefly date director Olivia Wilde. Because of this, sources told various outlets that there was beef between leading actor Florence Pugh and Wilde, chalking it up to Pugh's annoyance at the romance and Wilde's mishandling of the set.

LaBeouf, accused of domestic violence by ex FKA Twigs, denied that he had been fired, further sparking tensions surrounding the flick. A video later surfaced in which Wilde seemingly attempted to coax LaBeouf to rejoin the production, one in which she now infamously referred to Pugh as "Miss Flo." This only further ignited the firestorm around Don't Worry Darling in the weeks before Venice.

At the press conference in Venice, Pugh failed to show but did post a rather shady video of herself and some sort of Aperol concoction. Meanwhile, Wilde allegedly refused to answer questions about her absence or the rumors that plagued her film.

As is now inscribed in the annals of history, the festivities ended with a spit that didn't even happen.

Photo via Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty