Harry Styles' Nick Kroll Kiss Sparks More Queerbaiting Accusations

On Monday, September 5, the star showed up at the Venice Film Festival for the highly anticipated premiere of Don't Worry Darling, where the buzzy psychological thriller received a standing ovation at the end of the screening. But while you'd think Styles would have chosen to celebrate the moment with director Olivia Wilde — who also happens to be his girlfriend — that didn't end up being the case, as the "Watermelon Sugar" singer decided to lock lips with his co-star, Nick Kroll, instead.

In video footage taken after the screening, the two men can be seen walking towards each other before eagerly sharing a kiss and a big bear hug — much to the delight of the crowd. However, it seems as if the internet-at-large is much less happy about their little show of affection, especially given the ongoing discourse surrounding Styles' sexuality and alleged queerbaiting.

Harry Styles kisses Nick Kroll during the standing ovation for #DontWorryDarling. #Venezia79 pic.twitter.com/xqVPtOjwFT

— Ramin Setoodeh (@RaminSetoodeh) September 5, 2022

"Cool 2 straight guys kissing each other for attention we love it," as one Twitter commenter said in response to the clip, while a second person quipped, "me when i'm in a queerbait competition and my opponent is harry styles."

Cool 2 straight guys kissing each other for attention we love it

— What Does GTD Stand For (@NeglaInsane) September 5, 2022

me when i'm in a queerbait competition and my opponent is harry styles pic.twitter.com/n4H2wAGAkY https://t.co/W6dx8WxuD0

— bibi (@wampyra) September 5, 2022

Meanwhile, others accused the One Direction alum of trying to use the kiss to shut down the speculation, with another empathic critic asserting that "HARRY STYLES WEIRD ASS JUST KISSED A RANDOM MAN TO BEAT THE QUEERBAIT ALLEGATIONS."

HARRY STYLES WEIRD ASS JUST KISSED A RANDOM MAN TO BEAT THE QUEERBAIT ALLEGATIONS 😭

— edy 🌿 (@aronwyns) September 5, 2022

And to make matters even worse, Styles' kiss also comes on the heels of an adjacent conversation about singer-songwriter Charlie Puth and his penchant for posting racy thirst traps, which has made for plenty of content about celebrity queerbaiting.

the mid-off between Charlie Puth and Harry Styles to see who can queerbait better is just sad pic.twitter.com/t8R29XD3ef

— soli (@Solihark) September 6, 2022

so this is queerbait but when harry styles wears ugly dresses on the cover of vogue hes a queer icon😭 https://t.co/tUvnSehBTD

— pcd week 3 (@fullsunified) August 29, 2022

Styles has yet to comment on the current accusations, though he previously addressed the issue in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, explaining that he wanted to keep matters related to his sexuality private.

“Sometimes people say, ‘You’ve only publicly been with women,’ and I don’t think I’ve publicly been with anyone,” he said. “If someone takes a picture of you with someone, it doesn’t mean you’re choosing to have a public relationship or something.”

Photo via Getty / Andreas Rentz