Did Harry Styles Spit on Chris Pine at the Venice Film Festival? Thousands of users have been asking this question for 24 hours on social networks, but now there is an official answer. In a statement, Pine’s representative has denied that such an incident took place., calling it a “ridiculous story”. “It is a complete fabrication, the result of a strange online illusion that is clearly misleading and allows for foolish speculation,” the letter reads. But why has this ridiculous story, this hypothetical story, this non-story monopolized the internet conversation in the last few hours?
Everything comes from a video. In the presentation of Don’t Worry Darlingthe expected thriller from actress/director Olivia Wilde, Styles is seen approaching Pine to take a seat in the movie theater. When Styles goes to settle in his chair, reclining in front of his partner, he makes a subtle, almost invisible movement with his mouth. It is not this that draws the viewer’s attention, but Pine’s reaction. At that moment the actor looks down at his lap, stops clapping, shakes his head and smiles resignedly. The video is sufficiently ambiguous and of poor quality to give room for speculation. Did he spit on you? Is this an inside joke between them or is it a hostile gesture? The phantom sputum became nets in the new blue or gold dress that dominated the conversation in February 2015. It is shared because the incident directly challenges the viewer, encouraging them to comment on its existence.
“I don’t think anyone saw the spit at the presentation,” he reports. Thomas Koch, special envoy of EL PAÍS to Venice. The journalist acknowledges having felt a certain tension in the event, but no trace of the mysterious gargajo. He found out about the alleged incident, like many of his colleagues, the next day on social media. In the original video, which accumulates close to a million and a half views (and that there are hundreds of replicas on YouTube and social networks), there is room to intuit a salivation. But other shots of the scene quickly emerged from different angles, casting doubt on the original story.
In one of those videos, published by the deputy director of the film magazine Variety, the actors were seen chatting quietly seconds after the alleged gargajo was released. In another, after the screening of the film, colleagues were seen smiling and joking with a relaxed air. Despite all these videos, the tag #spitgate continued to be among the most commented on Twitter. Harry Styles Word Search goat (goat in English) grew by 2,450% according to Google Trends. Why did people continue —and continue— commenting on an incident that has already been denied?
In his book, The science of storytelling, journalist Will Storr points out the importance of causality for a story to succeed and go viral. “The brain can’t help but make cause-and-effect connections. It does it automatically,” he argues. Storr proposes an experiment to the reader with two words: bananas, vomit. “Psychologist Daniel Kahneman describes what has just happened in our brain, which outlines a script in which the bananas have caused the discomfort,” he argues. “The brain makes cause-and-effect connections, even when these are non-existent.”
Cause-effect reactions arouse the public’s curiosity. This is what happens with the video of Styles and Pine, where the reaction of the latter is evident. The effect is there, but the cause is missing. The viewer tends to fill in that information gap and the existence of a spittle fits perfectly not only in the video, but also in the story that has been created in recent months about the film.
Don’t Worry Darling is being one of the most commented films of the season for reasons that transcend the cinematographic. Its filming and promotion have sparked a series of controversies and news that would make for a documentary in itself. The main one is the supposed confrontation between Olivia Wilde, its director, and Florence Pugh, its protagonist. She, the latter, has announced that she will not participate in the promotion of the film and, during her presentation in Venice, she skipped the press conference and only went to the red carpet.
Wilde also clashed with another actor, Shia LaBeouf, whom he ended up firing from the project. She slipped to Variety that the motives were related to LaBeouf’s behavior. He later published an open letter to give his side of the story. “I left your movie (…) You and I know the reasons for my departure,” he said. In addition, he shared a video in which the filmmaker can be heard encouraging LaBeouf and Pugh to “make amends.” He did not refer to the actress as Pugh but as “Miss Flo”, a nickname that he slipped in an ironic tone that has not helped to ease the climate.
Finally, Harry Styles replaced LaBeouf. But not only. Weeks after her entry into the singer’s project, the director announced the end of her nine-year relationship with actor Jason Sudeikis. A few months later she began to be photographed with Styles in an affectionate attitude. Their joint appearances have been repeated as the relationship strengthened, always in public view.
All these news have been creating a story of disagreements, quarrels and rivalries around all those involved in the film. Until now, all the news and speculations have been delayed and indirect, but the Venice festival has been an opportunity to see all those involved live and analyze how they interact with each other.
The film was preceded by a brutal expectation and all the cameras and mobiles have focused on its interpreters to post images that have later been dissected and analyzed ad nauseam by Internet users. Much has been made of how Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh sat four seats apart, too far away to spit at each other, but also to look each other in the face during the three or four minutes of applause from the audience. Here, once again, a first video where eye contact was avoided went viral, but a second montage, longer and from another angle, dismantled this story.
Pine’s supposedly absent attitude during the press conference also drew attention, or the video published by Florence Pugh’s stylist, which showed the actress toasting with a Spritz while at the press conference her colleagues justified her absence by schedule problems. It was there that Olivia Wilde tried to silence the different controversies with a phrase that very well sums up the digital drift of her film. “As for all the gossip, the internet feeds on it, it is sufficiently well fed and I am not going to contribute.” It doesn’t seem like it’s necessary either.
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