Did Harry Styles Really Spit On Chris Pine At The Venice Film Festival?

The thing called Spitgate happened at the film’s premiere. Cameras caught Styles leaning over Pine and pursing his lips. The latter then looked at his lap as if something had fallen on it.

In an interview with Esquire, Pine denied that Styles did the disgusting deed. He also said he didn’t even know at first that there was such a video and it had become big news.

He only found out about the viral moment during his flight out of Venice.

“I was on the plane with my publicist…we're flying back from Venice,” he recalled.

He added that he was sleeping, and his publicist woke him up all of a sudden, looking upset.

“We have to craft a message about what happened in Venice,” she told him – and he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

The publicist then showed him the video.

“It does look, indeed, like Harry spitting on me,” he said, but added that the Watermelon Sugar singer “didn't spit on me.”

So, what was that all about?

The Star Trek actor explained that Styles might have been telling him a private joke.

“I think what he said is he leaned down, and I think he said, ‘It’s just words, isn’t it?’” Pine clarified.

He explained further, “Because we had this little joke, because we’re all jetlagged, we’re all trying to answer these questions, and sometimes when you’re doing these press things, your brain goes all befuddled, you know, you start speaking gibberish, and we had a joke like, ‘It’s just words, man.’”

A rep for Pine had already downplayed the spitting incident when it first went viral.

The rep had called it “a ridiculous story,” “a complete fabrication,” and “the result of an odd online illusion.”

To drive her point home, the rep reiterated that Styles did not spit on Pine, the two actors had a lot of respect for each other, and no drama existed between them.

In his Esquire interview, the Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit star also addressed the on-set drama that allegedly hounded the production and press tour of Don’t Worry Darling.

While he acknowledged that there might have been drama, he said he “absolutely didn’t know about it” and, if he did, he honestly wouldn’t have cared.

“If I feel badly, it’s because the vitriol that the movie got was absolutely out of proportion with what was onscreen,” he added.

Trying to make sense of what happened at the festival, he said, “Venice was normal things getting swept up in a narrative that people wanted to make, compounded by the metastasizing that can happen in the Twittersphere. It was ridiculous.”

As for his costars, he only had positive words.

He praised Olivia Wilde (who also directed the movie), described Styles as a “sweet guy,” and said he loved Florence Pugh “to f***ing death.”