Olivia Wilde served custody papers on stage

LAS VEGAS • When actress Olivia Wilde was handed a mysterious envelope on stage, midway through her presentation before a packed Las Vegas audience on Tuesday, many assumed it was the set-up for an elaborate joke.

Instead, she was getting served legal papers from her former partner Jason Sudeikis.

"This is for me, right?" asked Wilde, interrupted while introducing footage from her upcoming thriller Don't Worry Darling during Warner Bros' presentation at CinemaCon, the annual movie theatre industry gathering.

"Very mysterious. I'm going to open it now," she said, opening the envelope marked "Personal and Confidential" after it was slid calmly onto the stage by an unknown person.

Glancing at its contents, she asked: "Is this a script? Okay, got it. Thank you." She then returned to her description of the thriller, hardly missing a beat.

The envelope was never referred to again during the presentation, prompting speculation that somebody had tried to slip a new screenplay to the actor-director.

But it emerged on Wednesday that the document held legal papers concerning the two children Wilde has with Sudeikis, star of television comedy Ted Lasso (2020 to present).

"Papers were drawn up to establish jurisdiction relating to the children of Ms Wilde and Mr Sudeikis," a source close to Sudeikis said on Wednesday.

"Mr Sudeikis had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered as this would solely be up to the process service company involved, and he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner."

Wilde's representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

Don't Worry Darling, a twisty, erotic thriller inspired by The Truman Show (1998) and Inception (2010), stars British singer Harry Styles, who is dating Wilde.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE