LAS VEGAS — Actor and director Olivia Wilde was seemingly unruffled after being handed child custody documents while appearing on stage at an event in Las Vegas.

She was delivering a presentation on Tuesday when a brown envelope was handed to her.

Opening it, she discovered it contained custody papers from her former partner Jason Sudeikis.

Sudeikis had no prior knowledge of the circumstances of the letter's delivery, sources close to him said.

Wilde is best known for directing the US high school teen film Booksmart and for her role as Remy 'Thirteen' Hadley in the medical-drama House.

She met Sudeikis — best known for the comedy series Ted Lasso — in 2011. They were engaged and had two children together before separating in 2020.

Wilde was interrupted while introducing footage of her upcoming thriller Don't Worry Darling at a CinemaCon conference in a theater.

Wilde asked, "This is for me?" as she was handed an envelope marked "private and confidential" by an unknown woman.

She opened the letter during her presentation and scanned its contents, before resuming her speech.

The letter was not mentioned again, and led to speculation that Wilde had been handed a new film script.

But on Wednesday, it emerged the letter had instead contained custody papers concerning her and Sudeikis' children.

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

"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," they added.

In response to the incident, the organiser of the event, CinemaCon, said in a statement to Variety that it would "re-evaluate" its security protocols after questions arose concerning how the letter came to be delivered to Wilde on stage.

"We will act accordingly because it's the right thing to do. We want to do the safe, proper thing," it added. — BBC