‘The Curse’ and ‘Anyone But You’ gave us the funniest feud of 2023
Forget him reality show #Scandoval fireworks or the explosive revelations of Britney Spears’ memoir The woman in me — the title for best celebrity drama in 2023 goes to the out-of-nowhere (and thankfully low-stakes) rivalry between the new TV show The curse and upcoming romantic comedy Anyone but you.
The “feud” began on November 16, when Sony dropped the latest trailer of Anyone but you. It opens with a clip of leads Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell introducing the trailer, where the two argue over who is the real star of the film.
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“It’s done My film,” Sweeney told Powell.
“Well, we’ll see who owns the movie when it comes out,” he retorts.
The jokes certainly have character given the plot of Anyone but you, which sees two bitter enemies (Sweeney and Powell) pretending to be a couple at a wedding. However, the chemistry in the trailer is a bit…awkward. And who better to examine this awkwardness than the king of cringe himself, Nathan Fielder?
Fielder currently stars alongside Emma Stone in Showtime and A24 The curse, a surreal comedy he co-created with Benny Safdie. The series, a dark satire about two house players trying to film an HGTV-style reality show, is as far removed from Anyone but you as it can be. However, on November 17, A24 released a new trailer for The curse – one with an oddly familiar opening.
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That’s right: In one day, Fielder and Stone managed to pull off a perfect parody of Sweeney and Powell’s trailer intro. The details are perfect, from Fielder’s white polo shirt to Stone’s imitation of Sweeney’s exasperated eye roll. Give him another Oscar, stat!
But the rivalry between Anyone but you And The curse — again, two very unrelated projects! – didn’t stop there. Powell tweeted at Fielder that the parody “doesn’t count unless you go down the hole path…” referring to a section of the trailer where he gets naked. (If you end up watching The curseyou’ll see Fielder naked for a bit.)
Fielder responded with his own statement — and you know it’s “very serious” because it’s in the Notes app. In it, he claims that he and Stone filmed the promo for The curse more than six months ago and is worried that Sony Pictures has seen and copied it. In the interest of conciliation, he will not initiate legal proceedings. Instead, he writes: “This will not stop us from supporting each other (sic) in our successes, and I know that Emma and I will personally reserve front row seats to Anyone but you on opening night.” (Fielder also uses the statement as an opportunity to address the role of Artificial intelligence in the development of art, a major concern both WGA And SAG-AFTRA strikes.)
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But wait, the story isn’t over yet! Anyone but you director Will Gluck released his own response on Instagram. (Gluck notably directed Stone in the teen comedy masterpiece Easy, in case there’s still any confusion over whether that’s a bit friendly or not.) Gluck’s statement is a classic Notes app apology, where he admits — gasp! — steal not only the promotional concept for The curse, but its poster too. THE Curse-ified Anyone but you The poster shows Sweeney’s head photoshopped onto Stone’s, while Fielder and Safdie are swapped for Powell and Gluck.
Gluck ends his apology in the same manner as Fielder’s own statement: “We have no intention of standing in the way of your success; in fact, we celebrate it. I know we will all be watching for your success. The curse when it premiered in January. ” (The curse actually, the premiere was on November 10, but Gluck’s heart is in the right place.)
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And there you have it: a daylong feud with laughs, twists and turns, and a fitting resolution. Congratulation to Anyone but you And The curse for leaning on the brakes and reconciling their briefest differences. This is truly one of the most fun pieces of cross-promotion since the heyday of Barbenheimer.
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