Actor and director Olivia Wilde was supposed to be at the annual film industry trade show CinemaCon to introduce her new movie Don't Worry Darling to thousands of Hollywood colleagues and press.
Instead, she got served with custody papers—onstage.
Olivia Wilde was served custody papers while promoting her new movie onstage at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Tuesday. @SheinelleJones has more on the incident.pic.twitter.com/SMWYGlpFCz— TODAY (@TODAY) 1651147686
While Wilde was on the conference's stage at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas a man suddenly appeared beside her with an envelope, immediately sending tongues wagging as attendees suspected she'd just been served with a lawsuit, as seen below.
Abiding mystery of the Warner Bros #CinemaCon panel: half way through her schpiel about Don't Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde was handed a manilla envelope. Seemed like she got served a lawsuit!— Chris Lee (@Chris Lee) 1651022222
Wilde initially seemed to think it was an unsolicited and poorly timed screenplay submission, momentarily thrown off course from her Don't Worry Darling presentation.
Glancing down at the envelope marked "Personal and Confidential," she said:
"This is for me, right? Very mysterious. I’m going to open it now. Is this a script?"
After opening the envelope and glancing at its contents she simply said, "Ok got it, thank you" before gamely continuing on with her presentation like a true professional.
"OK, got it. Thank you."
As industry news site Deadline quickly figured out, the envelope contained custody papers from Wilde's former partner, Ted Lasso actor Jason Sudeikis.
Wilde and Sudeikis never married but have two children together, and split in late 2020. Wilde has since been dating her Don't Worry Darling star Harry Styles.
The film, Wilde's second feature after her 2019 directorial debut Booksmart, is a psychological thriller starring Styles, Florence Pugh, Chris Pine, KiKi Layne, Nick Kroll and Gemma Chan.
The film is said to have been one of the most hotly anticipated films to be presented at CinemaCon, formerly known as ShoWest, the entertainment industry's largest gathering of movie theater owners and executives each year.
But the "mystery envelope" quickly overshadowed any other news from CinemaCon--especially since Wilde's relationship with Styles is rumored to have been the cause of her split with Sudeikis.
And, naturally, Twitter immediately gave the incident the meme treatment.
Me trying to figure out what could have been in the envelope handed to Olivia Wilde yesterdaypic.twitter.com/z8HR7R6ROW— abby (@abby) 1651065962
Me trying to figure out what could have been in the envelope handed to Olivia Wilde yesterdaypic.twitter.com/z8HR7R6ROW— abby (@abby) 1651065962
olivia wilde getting served divorce papers while presenting the movie she made starring the man she cheated on jason sudeikis withpic.twitter.com/Qxxl7NuBRP— vero (@vero) 1651100428
olivia wilde at cinemaconpic.twitter.com/aaJhSztVFC— arden || chicago sunroof victim (@arden || chicago sunroof victim) 1651099508
They will serve somebody ANYWHERE https://twitter.com/filmupdates/status/1519438356597383168\u00a0\u2026— HOOD VOGUE is tired of poverty (@HOOD VOGUE is tired of poverty) 1651100904
i\u2019m sorry but jason sudeikis serving olivia wilde on stage at Cinema Con while she was presenting the film where she met the man she left him for is just a little too iconicpic.twitter.com/On4VrFqe6w— fly high daddy k\ud83d\udd4a (@fly high daddy k\ud83d\udd4a) 1651103007
the costudy lawyer waiting for olivia wilde to finish her speechpic.twitter.com/mDSQLgGVQn— techno gatsby (@techno gatsby) 1651098716
jason sudeikis serving olivia wilde custody papers at the panel for her new movie has the same energy as ted lasso challenging that one asshole to darts and then going \u201coh lol i forgot i\u2019m left handed!\u201d— NESS \ud83c\udf3f (@NESS \ud83c\udf3f) 1651101797
The rep waiting to serve Olivia Wildepic.twitter.com/Q7hGGGtPVL— Erik Anderson (@Erik Anderson) 1651109672
Olivia Wilde being served custody arrangement docs on stage at Cinema Con is exactly the kind of mess that insures I will never be able to divest myself of celebrity gossip culturepic.twitter.com/bIETN3WpXI— Mike Faist-y (@Mike Faist-y) 1651098888
As for Sudeikis, a source from his camp told Variety he had no prior knowledge Wilde would be served in "such an inappropriate manner," pointing out that the location at which the papers were served is determined by the process servers charged with contacting Wilde.
