If Harry Styles thinks the drama surrounding the premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling” at the Venice Film Festival earlier in the week is hilarious, he showed it Wednesday night with a joke even Chris Pine had to appreciate.
During a concert Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Styles took advantage of a break between songs to tell fans, “This is our 10th show at Madison Square Garden, it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back in New York. I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine but fear not, we’re back!”
Styles’ joke came as he kicked off the latest night of his “Love on Tour: Madison Square Garden Is Harry’s House” series of shows. You can watch the moment below.
It’s funny stuff after days and days of messy drama surrounding the film, directed by Olivia Wilde and also starring Styles, Florence Pugh and Chris Pine. No doubt you’re having trouble keeping track of it all, which is why we put together a handy breakdown of it here.
But the long story short is that there are rumors that Pugh was unhappy with the production, particularly the romance between Styles and Wilde that began on set, and that Pugh is actively not promoting the film. This culminated in a very awkward Venice world premiere when rumors that things had even grown tense between Styles and Pine intensified after a weird video where some suggested that it looked like Styles might have actually spit on Pine.
Both actors deny any such thing however and have publicly professed respect for one another in statements released after the alleged incident. Again, it’s a lot, so just go here to our explainer.