Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were hit by claims they had an "altercation" on the red carpet at Cannes film festival on Tuesday night.
Rita later told fans on Instagram that their frantic expressions were down to them trying to have a discussion with a member of staff at the event.
"This is called I can't hear you," she insisted.
And now a body language expert has confirmed that while the couple might have looked angry and irritated they were actually just trying to communicate clearly.
"As anyone who is hearing-impaired knows, the facial expressions you pull when you’re struggling to hear someone speak can often mimic signals of anger or irritation," body language expert Judi James tells The Mirror.
"Which is why I’m going to call this red carpet body language out in favour of Tom and Rita’s explanation.
"Both are leaning forward towards the red carpet manager here and it seems the din around them made it difficult to hear their directions. Tom’s deeply-etched frown and the way his eye stare at the man’s face suggest he is trying to listen intently rather than be threatening. We tend to wince when we want to show we’re deafened by surrounding noise and our eyes can fall on the lips of the person we’re trying to hear in an attempt to lip-read.
"Tom jerks his right thumb backward, which would fit with the fact that he was asking if they should join the line-up behind them. In another shot he is pointing forward, as though checking. Rita appears to be pointing directly at the guy, which might have suggested anger, except her hand is palm-up and the finger is crooked, which would suggest ‘can I just check?’. Only her lower jaw-jut might suggest impatience.
"The body language does look dramatic from a man known as the nicest man in Hollywood but there is a bigger clue in another pic that seems to confirm their version of events when Hanks is actually cupping his ear, which is a sure sign of a problem hearing what is being said.
"The contrast with the couple’s very stretched and rigid-looking showtime smiles as they pose up for the press a few moments later looks stark but I’d definitely give Tom the benefit of the doubt here, otherwise we’d be calling the well-documented niceness out as a sham."
Hanks was noticeably missing from a photocall for his new film Asteroid City this morning as the Cannes staffer involved in their 'altercation' on the red carpet spoke out.
Red Carpet Manager Vincent Chapalain has reportedly worked for the Festival du Cannes for ten years.
And while it looked like he was involved in a heated exchange with the A-list movie stars, he insists that this wasn't the case.
"They simply asked me if they should return to the start of the carpet with the rest of the film crew (I am not security)," he tweeted.
"And with the cries of photographers, they needed to speak loudly"
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