Back & Very Worried, Darling!!!!: Dropping Links vol. 6
Warning: This may be my magnum opus.
CIAO! I am back from a brief vacation-induced hiatus (here’s a video of me from last 10 days) and ready to dive right into an off-schedule newsletter drop because the Don’t Worry Darling press tour has been such a cluster, I need to save my group chats from more of my unhinged voice memos.
Brace yourselves for the length. If you’re uninterested in this drama (can’t relate), there are some other rec’s and goodness at the tail end. We’ll be back to internet-at-large coverage soon. Maybe.
Deep Dive
TLDR: The DWD press tour has been the biggest mess we’ve seen in a MINUTE, so consider this your cork board and some string to really see the web.
Starting from the very beginning: Don’t Worry Darling is the newest film directed by Olivia Wilde. Alongside its director, it stars media darling Florence Pugh, most famous man on earth Harry Styles, Very Good Chris™️ Chris Pine, too good for this mess Gemma Chan, and getting so much hotter with age Nick Kroll. Some may say, a stacked cast! What could go wrong!
Simply: everything.
The initial drama began to leak from set when Harry and Olivia were rumored to be dating. This was scandalous not just because of their combined mega-fame, nor their 10 year age gap, nor the weird director/star relationship, but rather that the speculation timeline lead to there being potential overlap with Wilde’s fianceé of seven years, Jason Sudekis. This was particularly hot information, due to Sudekis’ extraordinary success with Ted Lasso had him directly in the spotlight and good graces of….everyone. (I would dive into the Florence Pugh/Zack Braff/Ted Lasso connection, but we simply don’t have the time).
Related, is there was also speculation that Harry and Florence were together at the start of filming, and he left her for Olivia (never confirmed, and honestly meh about believing that). The conversation really became about Florence having to direct most of the movie due to Olivia being distracted with her new beau, something DeuxMoi reported on allegedly from PAs on set. JUICY.
Okay so, the movie wraps and we’re ready to dive into the early promotional days of a film that honestly needed to spend ZERO marketing dollars to ensure success given the drama, but alas, they have been on X-Games mode omnipresent in the press since the moment editing completed. However, throughout many of the cast being released, posters being created and posted, one thing notably absent was any promotion from Florence. When the trailer was released, the entire cast was posting and re-posting eachother. Florence posted another trailer from another movie she’d filmed and birthday messages to friends. OOP.
Then, it got even messier. When premiering said trailer at CinemaCon, Olivia was served custody papers while on stage as a result of her and Jason’s break-up. This lead to a ton of unanswered questions, considering the intense security for conventions like this, how a legal aid could get through to the exact time her panel would start is very odd.
So now we’re in the final weeks leading up to the movie. Once again, they really didn’t need to do ANY promotion, given the intense conversations that have already permeated every pop culture conversation for the last year, and yet, they persisted.
Olivia sat for an interview with Variety in late August, and through many conversations about the movie and in particular the sex scenes (something Florence resents people focusing on) and in this article mentions that originally, Shia LaBeouf was cast in the role Harry ultimately got. In the article, Olivia details that she fired LaBeouf because his “process was not conducive to the ethos that I demand in my productions.” However, less than two days after this dropped, Shia responded with receipts. This video was released which showed Olivia blaming Florence for the stress on set, and begging Shia to give the film another chance before he walked away. Shia also released an email to Olivia which was respectful, yet firm with receipts that he quit the movie, and was not fired. Why even lie or bring this up when essentially no one knew or remembered Shia was ever attached to this film in the first place? It’s a mystery.
WHEW. OKAY. Now we’ve arrived at the last 72 hours at the Venice Film Festival.
The weekend kicked off with a Don’t Worry Darling panel, where Florence was notably (and expectedly) absent as she’s filming Dune 2. It was clear the press pool wasn’t allowed to ask anything regarding the multitude of drama surrounding the movie. Yawn. However, one brave soul did sneak a question through, asking about Florence’s absence. Olivia gushed about Florence (as she’s done in Instagram posts throughout the last few months) and then ended with the quote my friends and I can’t stop saying: “I mean, the internet feeds itself. I don’t feel the need to contribute. I think it’s sufficiently well-nourished.” WE DISAGREE.
Later that day was the premiere of DWD and the preceding red carpet. Florence was tardy and arrived looking perfect via boat (queen shit). Minimal connection between the cast occurred, and every picture felt like those weird family photos of cousins you never see and don’t agree with politically. Notably, Harry and Olivia didn’t even speak or look at each other at any of the events. Was this to avoid any paparazzi pictures or press notes? Or have they broken up?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The weirdness continued when the cast went to take their seats for the screening. The internet was ALIGHT with the potential that Harry spit on Chris Pine???? Honestly, had this newsletter been released 24 hours ago, I’d have more to say, but it’s since been debunked (with a chastising statement from Pine, no less) and I’m bored. MOVING ON.
Once the screening wrapped, a massive standing ovation was given–initial reports clocked it at 4 minutes, which seemed great until the later reports came out that Brendan Fraser’s return to the screen netted a whopping 6-minute ovation. However, people have been reporting the DWD ovation probably would’ve gone on more, but Florence nope’d right out of there.
And now we’re here! Two weeks out from the movie going wide, the entire press cycle being about the drama and not the film, this IndieWire piece truly eating it ALIVE, watching the stylists being shady, enjoying this weird kiss between Nick Kroll and Harry, and wondering why Chris Pine has his hair like that and if he’s okay.
Now that you have the (extensive) background, I now present a buttload of links to my favorite memes. Enjoy! 🤌
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While I haven’t jumped into Archetypes yet, I am still on Meghan’s side, and therefore decided to do my due diligence, and catch up on the early 2010s classic I somehow missed, Suits. Full review: It’s good!
If there’s one thing about me: I’m an audiobook girlie through and through, and adding this Sherlock Holmes full anthology narrated by the GOAT Stephen Fry has been great! However, it’s been weeks and I still have 17 hours to go somehow?
Watch this on repeat for pristine joy.
THAT’S ALL FOLKS! Follow Dropping Links on Instagram and Twitter if you are into that sort of thing (plz be into it)