Dont Worry Darling and Information ‘Flo’
The recent, juicy drama surrounding the upcoming Olivia Wilde movie, Don’t Worry Darling, reveals the spanning networks of gossip, rumors, and theories that surround our modern obsession with celebrity culture. Most of all, the strength of the network shows how easy it is for information to spread, and entices even those who claim to have no interest in the personal lives of the elites among us.
This network shows why celebrity gossip intrigues us so much. The quick flow of information, the back and forth, and the endless speculation make these webs of drama tantalizing puzzles for the general public to dive into. To break it down, our nodes are Director Olivia Wilde, actors Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Shia LaBeouf, Chris Pine, Wilde’s ex Jason Sudeikis, Variety magazine, as well as Pugh and Wilde’s respective stylists. These nodes can be linked by negative and positive edges with red as negative and green as positive while black represents the edges of information flow. This graph is obviously incomplete, but for the interest of simplicity and due to limited knowledge, it provides a fairly accurate representation of the goings on.
To summarize the drama in short… Wilde began filming her movie Don’t Worry Darling in 2020 starring Florence Pugh and Shia LaBeouf. In September, LaBeouf leaves the set, LaBeouf claims it was due to scheduling conflicts, Wilde told Variety Magazine that she fired him, finally LaBeouf emails Variety to claim it was due to lack of rehearsals. LaBeouf provided texts between him and Wilde that showed she was remorseful about his exit.
LaBeouf was replaced by popstar Harry Styles. Reportedly, Styles began a relationship with Wilde on set. Around this time Wilde separates from longtime partner Jason Sudeikis, and following Wilde and Styles are spotted together through paparazzi encounters.
This is when the ever-talented Florence Pugh comes in. Through speculation alone (and speculation gets us far in these webs of gossip), Pugh and LaBeouf were at odds on set, LaBeouf reported as being combative. Combine that with the dispute between Wilde proudly claiming she fired him, and Shia’s purported evidence against that, friction forms. As well, Pugh is reported to have been uncomfortable with Wilde and Styles’ blossoming relationship on set. Pugh herself, linked to Jason Sudeikis, having appeared in a deleted scene of his show Ted Lasso, a show which in many ways copes with his separation from Wilde.
Here grows an alleged feud between Pugh and Wilde. Further instances include Wilde reportedly calling her “Miss Flo” in texts to LaBeouf in a dismissive manner, likening her to a diva who needed a “wake-up call.” Pugh notably didn’t promote DWD on her social media and has been avoiding press tours. Not to mention even Pugh and Wilde’s stylists seem to be feuding, with Pugh’s stylist instagramming “Miss Flo” captions and donning “Miss Flo” t-shirts while Wilde’s stylist posted a cryptic “there’s always more to the story.” Between the Variety interviews as well as countless other leaks, reveals, etc. that come by way of Instagram, paparazzis, and good old gossip news, this drama has made its way squarely into the public eye. From here on it spirals, in an undeniably funny way.
Chris Pine, a supporting character in DWD, enters as the perfect everyman character, zoning out in press interviews amidst Styles’ curious statements, being placed as a physical buffer in the seating arrangements at the premiere, and for a brief exhilarating 24 hours, there was a notion that Harry Styles spit on him on video. The general public found within Pine a wonderful specimen as a working actor, caught between webs of drama, poorly acting popstars, and alleged (not actual) spit.
What does this tell us about networks? Is this a thinly veiled attempt to discuss the enjoyable media storm we’ve relished in for the past week or so? To return to the course content, for one, what we’ve constructed demonstrates many elements of network structure. At the core the triangle between Pugh, LaBeouf, and Wilde was for a period a structurally balanced triangle. The animosity between Pugh and LaBeouf and Pugh and Wilde convened for an alliance between Wilde and LaBeouf, hence the “Miss Flo” texts. However as this spiraled the network unbalanced, and amidst this unbalance came the chaos of celebrity drama. What separates this dramatic network from all other networks of drama we see regularly in our social lives is the added public eye, represented by Variety magazine and its links to us, the plebian public. These additional nodes and visualizations separate the legitimate social network from the ones we create. The one displayed above may not even be accurate, but because of the window into it created by the media, we now have the ability to draw connections and hypothesize our own networks.
Overall this shows how enticed we as humans are by networks. We love to see the people we love ally with those we love and position against those we hate. As ever embedded individuals, it is no wonder the stories that sprout from the ongoing tangles of webs fascinate us. The added parasocial element only serves to exacerbate this. We have no real stake in these people’s lives, and so we don’t really care what we say or allege. The parasocial buffer allows us to be more invested than we should, and less accountable than ever. Networks are powerful, and the DWD drama shows this clearly. Can our own speculative networks affect the actual relationships between those mentioned? Who profits from these constructed networks of gossip? Why do we care? And most importantly, will Florence Pugh be in season three of Ted Lasso?
Sources:
Marcin, Tim. “Harry Styles’ spit, Miss Flo, and Chris Pine: ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ drama is taking
over the internet.” Mashable, 6 Sep 2022. <https://mashable.com/article/dont-worry-darling-drama-harry-styles-spit>
Merinuk, Madeline. “All the drama with the ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ cast, explained.” Today, 8 Sep