‘Scum,’ he says, taking a step forward, leading with his chest. ‘Don’t you dare ever – and I mean ever, ever, ever – hurt her again. Do you hear me?’

Brad rolls his eyes. Duke takes one more step to close the gap between them and screams, louder than he has screamed anything in a very long time: ‘DO. YOU. HEAR. ME?’

He can see in the gym mirror that he’s gone purple. He waits for his answer.

‘Yes,’ Brad tells him. ‘I hear you.’

He walks off then, and as Daphne tries to go after him, reaching out, he shrugs her off and says, ‘Not now, Daphne. Fuck off for a minute, why don’t you?’ Daphne’s face falls to hell. She can pretend it’s a misunderstanding all she likes, but now Duke has heard him speak so nastily, the jig is up.

‘He’s just stressed,’ Daphne says, almost pleadingly, like she doesn’t want Duke to think badly of him. ‘What with the delays, and he’s got the producers on his back, his wife calling him every hour of the day …’ She trails off, embarrassed. ‘He’s never done it before,’ she says. ‘I swear. I wouldn’t stand for it if he had.’

Duke looks at his friend, the woman he thought had broken his heart. He sees that her own is breaking, too, and it’s Brad who has done it.

‘You deserve better,’ Duke says.

Daphne nods. ‘I know.’

‘Come here,’ he says opening his arms when it looks like she’s going to break down into tears. She doesn’t even reach his chest before she issues a sob. ‘I know, darling,’ Duke coos, stroking her hair. He closes his eyes and says it again. ‘I know, darling. I know.’

Duke and Daphne are the lead story on TMZ, Mail Online and @DukesLewks, which means the photos have already become memes and gone viral. Somebody photographed them laughing on set yesterday and then hugging in the gym – Daphne’s face buried in Duke’s chest, his arms wrapped protectively around her, his eyes closed. Speculation over whether they’re getting back together is rife – although one anonymous source claims they were never really over in the first place. The production team don’t seem to care one way or the other, as long as their movie keeps making headlines and getting clicks. As long as Duke is dating somebody, they’re happy.

Duke is livid.

‘There’s a rat,’ he spits to Daphne in the breakfast hall, where they’ve sat opposite each other at a middle table so that they can demonstrate to anybody who might care that they’ve got nothing to hide. ‘It goes against every law on set. We’re supposed to be a team. On set everyone is equal – that’s how it should be.’