What a strange little world we live in. The searing question on everyone’s lips this week seemed to be, in complete irony, whether Jason Sudeikis threw himself under the wheels of his former partner Olivia Wilde as he reversed. Sudeikis performs a one-man Extinction Rebellion stunt to prevent Wilde from eating a salad with a “special dressing” for her new lover, Harry Styles. (The special seasoning in question appears to be just Nora Ephron’s Heartburn
It was the couple’s anonymous nanny who threw the beans in the protest. (What’s up with celebrities and their babysitters?) Sudeikis also allegedly banned staff from listening to Styles music in the house — the first in a series of allegations in this Hollywood disaster, according to anonymous babysitters” allegedly”. Depriving anyone of their “watermelon candy” felt particularly petty, but Sudeikis also had Wilde deliver a custodial in front of thirty thousand Man of the Manila Envelope CinemaCon. What can I tell you: Hollywood people really love dramatic scenes.
We love dramas too. The internet has been a pack of barking hounds during the slow-motion car crash, the production and marketing of Wilde’s second directorial outing. First off, we’re excited to see what Wilde does after Booksmart – in a sea of teenage angst, Booksmart in its teenage years was almost aloof. Shia LaBeouf and Florence Pugh were cast as leads in Don’t Worry Darling , advertised as
psychological thriller. Then, something happened – I don’t want to get around possible sexual misconduct allegations, but we still have a lot to do, and as far as I know, no charges have been filed – Shia was replaced with Harry Styles. I’m not sure about the exact order, but two things followed: Styles and Wilde started a relationship, and Wilde and Sudeikis ended a relationship.
Is anyone still with me now?
Wilde later gave an interview, in In the interview, she portrayed her sisterhood with Pugh, saying she fired LaBeouf to protect the actress. LaBeouf immediately leaked a video in which Wilde essentially begged him to patch things up with “Miss Flo” and return to the set. The Venice Film Festival premiere shortly after — Pugh refused to accept media coverage — was a chamber drama in itself.
As you can see, the problem boils down to rumors and gossip – not so much he said she said it No one said. Unfortunately, the “no comment” strategy has somehow upped the ante, leaving us all guessing and fighting over the truth . But at the same time, the true circumstances of all of this are irrelevant. We’ve been watching it develop and have learned almost nothing illuminating or valuable. Guessing is entertainment. I don’t know if it’s pleasure. Who among us really believes Harry Styles spat on Chris Pine in Venice? It’s just a super long joke and we all enjoy the madness and the absurdity. We already knew it wasn’t true, and then poor Chris Pine had to apologize, which not only added to the absurdity, but ruined our fun. Twitter’s later stages seem to be a frantic analysis of a moment we’re all fairly certain fictional. We just poked at each other and bickered about our hot topics. It feels harmless, but it’s not.
I’m obviously frustrated that a female-directed Hollywood film has gotten into a debate about the relationship so quickly. Two women – do they like each other, do they respect each other, who they have been wronged and how they have been wronged. We all pour in because it feels benign, but we fall into the toxic trap of misogyny, seeing a woman’s creative expression overshadowed by her personal life. Her manners were scrutinized, prodded and beaten. This paradigm has fooled Wilde, and it has fooled Pugh — we don’t want our male directors and actors to do that. This is a quiet and toxic idea manipulated by powerful women (maybe all women?). The woman indulges. They carry out their personal goals behind each other’s backs. All of this is misogyny, plain and simple. Pay attention to it and shout it out every time.
I’m sorry Wilde wasn’t judged on her content. Second movie. She is judged by what we think is the right way for women to work, the right way for women to manage actors, the right way for women to leave their partners. I suspect that the right way for women to date Harry Styles will forever be the talk of some parts of the internet; very few emerge from it unscathed. But it pains me to write an entire article without ever mentioning art. We discussed the plot, the ins and outs, but we never had time to criticize the film.
