(CNN) The internet hasn’t finished talking about ‘#spitgate’ – the term born online last year when viral footage from the Venice Film Festival showed singer and actor Harry Styles making a move that made some believe that he spat on his “Don’t Worry Darling co-star Chris Pine.
Months after the September 2022 controversy, Pine himself finally entered the conversation to put it to rest.
“Harry didn’t spit on me,” Pine told Esquire in an interview published Wednesday. He added that he thought Styles was “a very, very nice guy.”
Pine said he had seen the footage and admitted that “it looks, indeed, like Harry spitting on me”.
The ‘Star Trek’ actor went on to explain what really happened, explaining that Styles leaned over to Pine to say, “Those are just words, aren’t they?” The comment, according to Pine, boiled down to a “little joke” the “Don’t Worry Darling” cast had with each other about interacting with the media while promoting the film, which was the purpose of their appearance in Venice at the time.
Although this is the first time Pine has addressed the incident directly, a rep for the actor previously released a statement denying that anything nefarious happened between Pine and Styles.
Olivia Wilde, who directed and also starred in ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, echoed the sentiment weeks later, telling Stephen Colbert that Harry ‘didn’t spit on Chris’.
She added that the viral video is “a perfect example of people looking for drama wherever they can”, which was apparently a reference to the many buzzing stories that came out of the film’s production and its subsequent promotion.
Even Styles himself joked about the incident at one of his concerts.
Now it seems there is nothing to worry about, my dear. All is well between Styles and Pine.