Vanessa Hudgens has sent a message to fans after being accused of snubbing her ex-boyfriend Austin Butler at the Oscars.
Hudgens, 34, and Butler, 31, started dating way back in 2011, and were together for an impressive nine years before calling it quits in January 2020.
Earlier this year, the High School Musical star commented on a news article about her ex not being able to shake the accent he donned for Baz Luhrmann biopic Elvis, simply writing: “Crying.”
Butler was also recently slammed for being 'disrespectful' after referring to Hudgens as his 'friend', despite having been in a relationship with her for years.
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Many people wondered if the pair - who are now in relationships with other people - would be reunited at the Oscars this year, where Butler was nominated for the Best Actor award and Hudgens was on the red carpet as a host for ABC’s pre-show coverage.
She didn’t end up interviewing Butler for the channel, and instead he spoke to her co-host, Ashley Graham, but the duo were later photographed posing together at the Vanity Fair Oscars after party.
While they were both smiling in the photos, a video obtained by Entertainment Tonight a few hours later that suggested things weren’t quite as cordial as we thought, with the footage showing her seemingly brush past Butler as he waved to his fans.
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As she gets closer, her eyes look over to her ex, but then she puts her head down and walks on - a non-exchange that many people found incredibly awkward.
Of course, we don't know the full picture - maybe she didn’t want to interrupt Butler? - but some took it as a sad sign that two people who had been in a relationship for nearly a decade couldn’t greet one another.
Hudgens has now issued a message to fans after accusations the she snubbed Butler, having referenced another painful moment from the night - when Kimmel asked Malala, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in history, if she believed ‘Harry Styles spit on Chris Pine’ at the Venice Film Festival premiere of Don’t Worry Darling last year.
Ever diplomatic, Malala replied: “I only talk about peace.”
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Hudgens seems to have echoed Malala’s cleverly neutral remark herself, writing in her Instagram Story: “Let’s all be on the ‘I only talk about peace’ train. OK?”
Butler recently praised Hudgens - describing her as a 'friend' - for encouraging him to pursue the role of Elvis in the recent biopic.
Butler made the revelation about Hudgens as he discussed how he ended up stepping into the King of Rock 'n' Roll's shoes on The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable.
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"The month before I heard that Baz [Luhrmann] was making the movie, I was looking at Christmas lights and there was an Elvis Christmas song on the radio and I was with a friend of mine," he said.
"I was singing along and my friend looked over at me and said, 'You gotta play Elvis.' I said, 'Oh, that's such a long shot.'
"A couple of weeks later, I was playing the piano," he continued.
"I never really sang for any of my friends or anything. That same friend was there and I was playing the piano.
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"She said, 'I'm serious. You gotta figure out how you can get the rights to a script.' Then my agent called and said, 'So Baz Luhrmann is making an Elvis film.'"
Jess Hardiman