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Chris Pine and Harry Styles both deny the 'ridiculous' spitting story.

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On Tuesday, social media occurred as a journalist stated that a video appeared to show Styles spitting as he took his seat next to his co-star on Sunday.

"This is not true," a source close to the UK singer-turned-actor told the Guardian. The publicist for US actor Chris Pine concurred, calling the report "ridiculous."

"This is a stupid report - a total fiction and the consequence of a weird web illusion that is clearly misleading and allows for dumb discussion," claimed a spokeswoman for the American actor.

"These two guys have nothing but respect for one another, and any suggestion otherwise is a shameless attempt to create drama that just does not exist."

Several videos extensively circulated online stated that when Styles sat down at the premiere, with Pine in between him and the film's director Olivia Wilde, he spit at his co-star. Pine's reply seemed to imply that Styles had spit.

Billboard Pop also released a video of Pine appearing to zone out while Styles discussed the flick.

It was the latest in a spate of difficulties for the film, when fellow actor Florence Pugh, who plays Styles' on-screen partner, walked the red carpet at the premiere but was noticeably absent from the press conference.

Shia LaBeouf was supposed to portray Styles' part, but Wilde recently sacked him because his "process was not conducive to the ethos that I require in my shows."

However, the American actor denied this, telling Variety that he had "left the picture owing to a lack of rehearsal time." LaBeouf fuelled the fire even more by uploading a video that Wilde supposedly sent him in 2020, begging him to return to the project and asking if he and Pugh could "make peace."

When a journalist at the same Venice news conference attempted to go more into the subject, the moderator quickly shut it off.