Yesterday we published the video above of Shia LaBeouf, who turns 22 today – Happy Birthday Shia! – drunk at what looks like a house party. He’s interacting with another party guest, encouraging the guy to smack him. During their stupid banter before Shia gets smacked, Shia calls the guy a “faggot” in order to encourage him to land the blow.
Today Shia’s rep has issued a statement about the video. He says it was taken several years ago, and that could be true because Shia has such a baby face it’s hard to tell if he’s aged since, and that Shia regrets saying the word in any context and is embarrassed that the video got out. It comes across like a sincere apology and is one that can serve as an example for other celebrities who need to issue statements after saying or doing idiotic things:
“The videotape that is currently being circulated is several years old and captures Shia playing a game among friends in which he uses a derogatory word toward a friend,” LaBeouf’s rep tells me exclusively. “He regrets having used the word in any capacity and is very embarrassed that this footage is being seen by anyone.”
[From Mark Malkin on E! Online]
A lot of you pointed out that Shia pretty openly flipped off David Letterman during an appearance on the show in May. Dave and Shia were talking about Shia’s drunken Walgreen’s arrest, in which he described returning to the drug store twice times in an attempt to get cigarettes after a security guard made fun of him and distracted him from his purchase. Dave joked about Shia changing clothes for his second trip to the store, and Shia subtly flipped him off for a moment. You could tell it was deliberate and not just the way he was gesturing with that hand.
The kid is 22 years old and he’s foolish, but his worst offenses are shopping drunk and smoking outside, and unlike a lot of his peers he’s never been busted for DUI. While he did use a very obnoxious and offensive word in a video taken at a party, he apologized properly and sounds like he regrets it.
Amy Winehouse has also sort-of apologized for the many slurs she used in a stupid sing-song rant in which she called four groups “deaf, dumb, blind and gay.” She told photographers “I don’t want to play anything down, but I’m the least racist person going.” Some people commented on that story that it was more like a child’s song and was something her husband encouraged her to sing. Other people said there’s no excuse for what Amy did, even if it was in private. Maybe she needs a good PR person like Shia’s so she can apologize with feeling and explain how that happened. Unlike Shia, she didn’t just use one offensive name for a group, it was a string of them and included mean comments specifically about those groups.
Shia LaBeouf is shown below outside a fan screening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in NY on 5/21/08, thanks to WENN.
Geez, the kid did that a few years ago and so what? Kids say all sorts of inappropriate things all of the time. With age and wisdom comes the ability to understand that words are powerful and can hurt. Truth be known, we all probably say things on a daily basis that someone might find offensive. He’s a youngster, give him a break!
well said devilgirl.
Nothing like a gratuitous apology over a nothing incident.
Is this what this ‘sensitivity’ has brought us to?
Apparently if I was a celebrity I’d never have time to do any work because I’d be so busy apologizing 24/7.
People need to get over themselves and stop crucifing stars for saying things that, generally, are much less offensive than anything you’d hear at the average frat party. It sucks that Shia felt he had to apologize for something so trivial.
You know, he may have just been being dumb. It’s humiliating now to admit this, but I’ve done the same thing. When I was in college, I lived with a gay roommate. I would teasingly call my boyfriend that word, mostly because I thought it just sounded funny. I was horrified and mortified when my roommate asked me to please stop using it as it made him uncomfortable.
In retrospect I was being an ignorant and insensitive moron, but it really hadn’t occured to me that he would be offended, or that what I was doing was wrong. I did not mean any insult to my roommate or boyfriend; both then and now I am actively involved in political advocacy efforts for LGBT rights. I was just young and stupid.
I’d like to hope that Shia is just as much of an idiot as I was twelve years ago. 😕
he’s a man.. and the good thing about it he apologise…:wink:
And as we all know, everybody has the right to not be uncomfortable.
Good grief!! I call my best friend a faggot all the time and he’s not even gay. People have too much times on their hands. It’s unfortunate that people cannot have lives outside their work. Like C/B said..it’s not like he got busted for a DUI.
I agree with you Mary Ann. In so much as the word is offensive and that there is much to be done in the way of defending the community as a whole. My best friend is a gay man and having seen how much of a process it was just for him to discover his sexuality, I really do feel that the LGBT community faces tremendous adversity. Yes, everyone does and says stupid things, but my feeling is, why try and bring down and entire community of people with you while you are doing and saying these stupid things? It just doesn’t seem very fair.
Eh, hes a kid. Good of him to apologize, but its not a big deal
That video could have been taken of any person on any college campus in America (with the possible exception of Berkley, where I’m pretty sure insensitivity of any kind warrants a death sentence).
I thank God every day that neither myself nor any of my friends from high school or college are anywhere near famous. I can’t be sure, but I’d wager there’s at least half a dozen videos in existence that if they were ever to air publicly, most of us would have to flee the country.
Even though, if they were aired, I honestly can’t see myself apologizing for it. Should anyone really expect intelligent discourse from a group of drunken dipshits crushing beer cans on their foreheads?
Now, if he’s still acting like this in his mid-late twenties – THAT is something to apologize for.
It would suck to know that everything you say and everything you do will eventually end up on the internet. being a celeb today is a pain. I think we all should issue and apologie today for the politically insensative things we said yesterday. Thank God there is no video from when I was in college I am pretty sure that I offended nearly everyone I ever met during those years 🙄
Our society evolves. What may have been said 20 or 30 years ago with no resulting action is no longer relevant. The reality is that we all have to become more sensitive to what is hurtful or difficult for others to hear. To me, it is sad because gays and people who are overweight are the last groups that it’s “safe” to say mean and hurtful things about with little or no repurcussion.
i wouldn’t have apolized for it…i call my brother fag and i lot of other people to who are straight.
when i use the word i am not even thinking about gay people…who i happen to be sick of..
Good golly miss molly, people should grow some tougher skin as I for one am sick and tired of the knee jerk response of “they must apologize because I am offended”. The apologies end up being only the least bit contrite and only serve to advance the newest sport of dashing to victimhood in America.
My 3 best friends are all gay men, and they don’t care what I call them. The context is everything–they know I’m joking, and they call me all sorts of derrogatory names for Jews! I’d also like the point out that the first people to be offended by racist or otherwise prejudicial remarks are never black or Jewish or gay, or whatever.
LaBeouf seems like a sincere fellow, misquoted a lot, but sincere nonetheless
awww poor guy i wouldnt want to get black mailed because i got smacked 😥
The people who are complaining about this are some of the most immature, oversensitive hypocrites out there. Take Perez Hilton, for example. When he reported on this story, he referred to Shia as “LaDouche.” Now, how is that any less offensive than Shia dropping the “f**” bomb? At least Shia was kidding! Perez? I really doubt it.
Anyway, Shia! Keep your head up and ignore these morons. If they’re not complaining about something, they’ll look like this 😯 for a while and then explode.
Really! I’ve seen it happen.
Keep up the good work. 😀