Move over La La Land, there’s a new Envelopegate in town. On Tuesday, during her presentation of her new film, Don’t Worry Darling, at CinemaCon, Olivia Wilde was interrupted by a woman who handed her a legal envelope with the words “Personal and Confidential” stamped on them. It seemed pretty obvious Wilde was just served legal papers in an extremely public forum.
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 (@__ChrisLee) April 27, 2022
Yesterday, Deadline clarified that Wilde was served custody papers by her ex, Jason Sudeikis, with whom she shares two children. And then Sudeikis, via his representatives, very quickly got word out that he had no idea a process server would deliver the papers to Wilde “in such an inappropriate manner” and that he didn’t “condone” it. As for CinemaCon, the body responsible for securing the venue where the talent presentations are made, they are “reevaluating” their security after the rogue process server apparently did an Ethan Hunt-level job infiltrating the place to serve Wilde.
Re Olivia Wilde and Envelopegate: a well-placed CinemaCon source tells me whoever served her those documents had all the right credentials including the covid vax bracelet and ID lanyard that convention delegates have to wear. Nothing about this was haphazard or left to chance!
— Chris Lee (@__ChrisLee) April 27, 2022
Three things:
1) This is not on Jason Sudeikis, but it definitely makes HIM look like the asshole. I have no doubt he was clueless that some random process server would make a point of delivering the papers in the most high-profile way possible, but it happened, and he’s going to have to wear it. At best, this makes him look extremely petty, and it’s not on-brand with his post-Ted Lasso kindness makeover.
2) Olivia Wilde handled the whole thing flawlessly. Reportedly, she didn’t miss a beat, just said, “Oh, I know what this is,” and then continued on her with presentation, LIKE A BOSS.
3) Most process servers are just people doing a job, but some of them unquestionably delight in the subterfuge inherent in serving papers. This mystery server appears to be one of those. She either faked her credentials extremely well, or she actually registered for CinemaCon just to do this. Either way, COMMITMENT. But also, come on, that’s SUCH an asshole move.
Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis’s custody battle is none of my business, but it IS my business to imagine how the various characters of Ted Lasso would respond to someone at Richmond AFC being served legal papers during, say, a post-game press conference. Ted would be horrified, he would hate having personal business play out in such a dramatic, public way. Roy Kent would probably throw the papers back in the server’s face, giving them an epic paper cut while calling them a c-nt. Rebecca would pull an Olivia and just keep going without betraying her thoughts on the matter, Higgins, however, would start panic-sweating immediately. Keeley would make a note of the process server’s company info and burn the office down later, but no one would ever be able to prove it was her. Jamie Tartt would have no idea what was going on, and Nate would be the one sending the papers, because Nate SUCKS.