It was a PR executive's dream: the film that, months before release, had already snowballed into an avalanche of headlines, each after the other sending the gossip machine into overdrive. The director and her lead were having an affair! There had been tension on set – no, an all-out screaming match!
The revelations were salacious, the receipts juicy. Instagram posts from the film's stars became crime scenes, every comment and tag meticulously dissected by online detectives to build a vague political map of the various alliances and snubs within the cast. You could practically imagine the red string flying haywire.
Then there was the Venice premiere.
