As the whole drama surrounding the press tour of Don't Worry Darling slowly continues to eclipse the film itself with red carpet tensions so thick you could cut them with a knife and the internet breathlessly scrutinizing every interaction, Harry Styles is doing his best to steer into the skid and poke fun at what is now known as SpitGate.
Returning to Madison Square Garden to pick up where Love on Tour 2022 left off, Styles joked about the now-infamous clip appearing to show him spitting on co-star Chris Pine at this week's premiere. “This is our tenth show at Madison Square Garden. It is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back here,” Styles remarked. “I just popped over to Venice to spit on Chris Pine, but fear not, we’re back!”
\u201c"I just popped over to Venice to spit on Chris Pine, but fear not, we\u2019re back!"\n(via @2011satellite)\u201d— HSD Love On Tour (@HSD Love On Tour) 1662600587
As Styles' first public comment on the controversy, the joke drew laughter and cheers from the stadium audience (even if it did land like your "fun" uncle trying to lighten the mood after a big fight before everyone sits down for Thanksgiving dinner). However, it didn't do much to calm the tidal wave of speculation.
Since the clip of Styles leaning over Pine as he takes a seat at the Venice Film Festival premiere, the footage of the interaction has been practically analyzed frame-by-frame to figure out if the former did spit on the latter. From the twinge in Styles' facial muscles as he bends over to Pine's momentary freeze before slowly putting on the pair of sunglasses in his lap as the film starts, it wasn't hard to fill in the blanks even if it was the internet's mind playing trick on itself.
Pine's representative was quick to get in front of the story telling People, “This is a ridiculous story — a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation.” Making sure to leave no room for ambiguity, the rep went on to spell it out that "Harry Styles did not spit on Chris Pine. There is nothing but respect between these two men, and any suggestion otherwise is a blatant attempt to create drama that simply does not exist.”
\u201csomeone needs to begin a full fledged investigation into what happened on that don\u2019t worry darling set\u2026 wdym harry styles spitting on chris pine on NATIONAL TELEVISION? \u201d— ceo of kory (@ceo of kory) 1662430050
Whether this ends up being the final word on SpitGate remains to be seen.
Photo via Getty/Vittorio Zunino Celotto
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