For more than a year, there’s been a whole lot of gossip surrounding the production and promotion of Olivia Wilde’s new movie Don’t Worry Darling, which is about to come out and which is already getting dismal reviews. That gossip went nuclear this past weekend, after Don’t Worry Darling had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. There are a lot of stories coming out of that premiere, but the juiciest, in every sense of the word, is the speculation that maybe Harry Styles spat on Chris Pine while taking his seat for the screening. Sadly, that probably didn’t happen, but that hasn’t stopped Styles from joking about it.

The whole spit story comes from one particular video where it really looks like Styles intentionally spat on Pine’s leg, despite there being no visible spit in the video and despite nobody being able to come up with a convincing reason on why Harry Styles might want to spit on Chris Pine. Pine’s reps denied the spit story, calling it “a complete fabrication and the result of an odd online illusion that is clearly deceiving and allows for foolish speculation,” and there’s now a prevailing theory that Pine’s sunglasses just happened to fall in his lap at that moment.

Last night, Harry Styles returned to New York and played the latest in a long stand of shows at Madison Square Garden. During last night’s show, Styles said, “This is our tenth show at Madison Square Garden. It’s wonderful, wonderful, wonderful to be back in New York. I just popped very quickly to Venice to spit on Chris Pine. But fret not, we’re back!” Here’s video:

Harry Styles, it must be noted, is not that good at telling jokes. This might be one of those situations where somebody is so good-looking that everyone always laughs (or screams) at his jokes, so he never has to learn to be funny. Or maybe he was really admitting to the spit! Probably not, though.

In other Harry Styles cinematic news, My Policeman, the other big fall drama that has Styles in a leading role, now has a new trailer. Check it out below.

What if, during the promotion of My Policeman, Harry Styles spits on Rupert Everett?