OUR LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH AFFAIR-BAITING ON PRESS TOURS

words by ANOUK WOUDT

With the Wuthering Heights Press Tour being at the top of our minds, the intensity of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s on-screen romance transferred to the red carpet, where their collective swooning was wholly overwhelming. Intensified by Robbie’s comments on ‘feeling like a child without her blanket’ in Elordi’s absence, we are left wondering to what extent their codependency is performative, aligning with a broader trend overtaking movie promo, as we see stars almost begging the public to gossip. Though this form of publicity isn’t new to the movie business, it seems to have amplified over the years, with scandals serving as an extension of the entertainment.

image via @justjared

As mentioned, the idea of the manufactured “showmance” is not a new concept. In fact, it's been around since the Golden Age of Hollywood, with castmates coincidentally coupling up just in time for the movie’s release. Though usually harmless, nothing sells better than scandal. We can see this rings true even back in the ‘60s with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton’s illicit liaison on the set of Cleopatra. While both actors entered the film set with committed relationships, their attraction soon blossomed into an off-screen fling that gripped the entire nation, receiving endlessly more attention than any monogamous stint could have ever grasped.

Though it acted as a PR plant, it wasn’t fabricated, leaving behind two real broken relationships. But real or show, the numbers don’t lie… and the film industry has been desperate to recreate that level of media attention ever since.

This leads us back to Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s uncanny mutual obsession. In their attempt to mimic Brontë’s iconic love story, they have found themselves seemingly in a competition of who can act the most in love. With Robbie getting them matching custom signet rings and Elordi covering her room with roses as a Valentine’s Day surprise during filming, they seemed to have become completely enveloped by their characters. Even throughout their press tour, they talked endlessly about how consumed they were by one another, with Robbie claiming to feel lost on set if he wasn’t in her line of vision. But, as Margot stays faithful to her husband on the production team, their behaviour just feels artificial. 

image via @people

A similar phenomenon occurred with the Wicked press tour last year, where Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s aggressively codependent, allegedly ED-driven relationship sparked major discourse, and not always in a positive way. People questioned the unnatural way they looked and acted, with the internet being flooded by the memes of their interviews, even leading some to lose interest in the film entirely. Though they were not baiting an affair, the marketing strategy feels very similar, marked with the caricature air of intense phoniness being used to sell an on-screen connection. And as they are apparently no longer on speaking terms and Ariana lost her “sickly glow,” it may have been for the best that the press tour is over.

But sometimes, it’s not even the big bad PR machine that is complacent, but our own desires. When A Star Is Born was having its moment, everyone and their mama were shipping Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Did something ever happen between them?, Though to this day, they maintain that their relationship was strictly platonic, the rumours got so crazy that they allegedly became another nail in the coffin of Cooper's real-life relationship with Irina Shayk, ultimately breaking the couple up. This whole situation shows that we might want our on-screen romances to be real just as much as the network does, or maybe even more. Can we truly blame them for pandering to what we, as an audience, want?

image via @vanityfair

The truth is, press tours nowadays are trying way harder than they used to be. Romances used to seemingly spark naturally, and if there was ever a need to fake it, it was never pushed to this extent. Bring back the days when we had to make our own gossip, and it wasn’t served prepared for us on a platter. This year, we’re hoping for a moment of realness in the movie industry, but alas, who knows if that day may ever come. After all, how can you really trust an actor?