Stranger Things 5 Can Wait: David Harbour’s Power Move Could Have Lily Allen Second-Guessing Her Album

Lily Allen just put a raw, very pointed version of her marriage on a record. Now word is David Harbour may be gearing up to answer it publicly — and possibly downshifting Stranger Things 5 promo in the process.

What Harbour is reportedly planning

Tabloid alert: Radar Online says Harbour has had it with being framed as the bad guy and is lining up a response. The vibe from those sources is that he wants to "set the record straight," even if that means focusing less on Stranger Things Season 5 marketing right now. The rumored formats on the table: a big interview or possibly a book. People in Lily Allen's orbit allegedly think a counterpunch could get messy fast, but the takeaway is the same — he thinks his reputation took a hit and he intends to fix it.

"He’s ready to speak out."

Worth emphasizing: none of this is confirmed by Harbour himself. It’s gossip for now, but the smoke is getting loud.

What Allen says West End Girl is (and isn’t)

West End Girl has been a critical win — an 84 on Metacritic — and it earns that with sharp, unforgiving storytelling. That said, Allen has been clear that people shouldn’t treat every lyric as a sworn affidavit. In interviews, she’s called the album inspired by her marriage but not strict reportage, described the writing process as manic and emotionally brutal yet unforced, and labeled the whole thing "autofiction." She also says the narrator is an alter ego, not literally her, which tracks with the way the album blurs what was real, what was imagined, and how she connected the dots after the fact.

The story the album tells (and the specific tracks everyone’s talking about)

• West End Girl (title track): Kicks off with the move to New York for the wedding — "nice little rental near a sweet little school" and "looking at houses with four or five floors" — before the mood drops into a phone call where the other voice floats an open relationship. She’s rattled, trying to be accommodating, and you can hear the grief between the lines: "Hi, how are you? I miss you" turns into "I want you to be happy."
• Ruminating: Sleepless spiral mode. She fixates on whether he was physically involved with someone else — "Did you kiss her on the lips" — and pleads to still be "your number one."
• Madeline: This is where she sketches an "arrangement" with rules (be discreet, keep it transactional, strangers only) and then breaks the rule when the other woman isn’t a stranger. Allen later told The Times that Madeline is a composite "construct of others." Complicating things, costume designer Natalie Tippett publicly suggested she’s the Madeline referenced (per Metro).
• Tennis: The emotional affair chapter. The connection deepens with the other woman, and the narrator even addresses Madeline directly, looking for answers.
• Pussy Palace: The wildest, most specific entry. She labels the partner a sex addict and inventories what she says she found at their West Village place after kicking him out and dropping off essentials: a Duane Reade bag with the handles tied, sex toys, lube, butt plugs, and "hundreds of Trojans."
• Fruityloop and the rest: It’s a 14-track run that circles the end of a relationship from multiple angles — logistics, suspicion, confrontation, and aftermath — all with that autofiction disclaimer lingering over it.

So, does Harbour clap back or let the album stand?

If Radar’s sources are right, a rebuttal is coming, and soon. If not, West End Girl will keep doing what it’s doing: dominating the discourse while leaving just enough ambiguity for everyone to argue about what was real and what was narrative. Either way, don’t be shocked if Stranger Things 5 press has to share oxygen with a very public, very personal he-said/she-sang.