After Plagiarism Scandal, Shia LaBeouf Announces He’s Retiring
The past few weeks have not been kind to actor Shia LaBeouf. First he was booted from the cast of a Broadway play. Then he was busted plagiarizing his apology to the other actors. Later, it was revealed his short film, 'Howard Cantour' was actually plagiarized from a comic by author Daniel Clowes. LaBeouf apologized and - you guessed it - that was plagiarized too. He hired a skywriter to fly a smug "I am Sorry Daniel Clowes" banner over Los Angeles (Clowes lives in San Francisco) and defiantly posted the cease and desist from Clowes' lawyers online.
Whatever seems to be happening in LaBeouf's personal life that has precipitated this breakdown appears to have finally reached it's head as the actor announced that he's ready to retire.
Early this morning on Twitter, LaBeouf took to his Twitter feed to drop the news to his 85,000 followers:
LaBeouf added another tweet that said, "My love goes out to those who have supported me" and included the hashtag #stopcreating. This, of course, begs the question, If people stop creating, what will Shia LaBeouf steal for his next movie? What's interesting is that these tweets about his retirement seem to be some of the first tweets in recent memory that weren't cribbed from previously existing works.
Well, you don't have to worry about that now as LaBeouf has joined Gene Hackman and Sir Sean Connery as actors who've retired from "all public life." How this impacts his upcoming film with Brad Pitt, the WWII film 'Fury,' or 'Nymphomaniac' remains to be seen, but the marketing departments are probably thrilled they won't have to worry about him.
It's still unclear whether this is some kind of weird Joaquin Phoenix-style performance art piece, or if LaBeouf is really having a public meltdown. If it's the latter, we wouldn't entirely be surprised. The actor has struggled with alcoholism and had a troubled upbringing; his father, a registered sex offender, once pointed a loaded gun at LaBeouf's head while high on heroin.
Whatever the case, we wish LaBeouf the best with his time off from "all public life." When everything gets sorted out (whatever "everything" is...), we'd love to have you back.