It was about two weeks ago that Shia LaBeouf was called out for plagiarizing his short film, HowardCantour.com, from a comic strip by Daniel Clowes. Clowes was made aware of the blatant theft of his work, and made it clear that Shia had “implied authorship” of his ideas. Clowes added, “I’m not sure if it’s more disturbing that he plagiarized, or that he could rationalize it enough to think it was OK and that he might actually get away with it.”
Once it became known that Shia was lifting other people’s ideas without credit, he sort-of acknowledged his error and went on to tweet “apologies” that were cut and pasted from other sources on the web. (This was actually the second time he had been caught plagiarizing “apologies.”) This would have been acceptable if he had simply linked or otherwise named the authors. A lot of people retweet and quote others on Twitter, it’s just necessary to acknowledge the source. Only Shia was lifting other people’s words with no attribution whatsoever.
Fast forward to now and Shia is still doing this. He’s still “apologizing” by blatantly cutting and pasting. EW points us to several of Shia’s recent tweets that are cut and pastes, but there’s even more. Here are examples. I’ve put letters next to each tweet as reference.
Here are the sources for all those tweets.
A. Mr. Marcus [via EW]
B. Plagiarist Kristi, who copied from BeautifullyInvisible.com
C. Jade Goody [via EW]
D. Nick Clegg
E. Elliot Spitzer [via Perez Hilton]
F. Russell Crowe [via Perez Hilton]
G. Fake sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial.
H. Shia LaBeouf – 2010
I could go on, but I’ll spare you. So basically almost all of Shia’s tweets, even the ones where he’s apologizing for plagiarizing, are plagiarized. Except one where he’s quoting himself. I would say he’s trolling us, particularly when he’s lifting recent quotes from high profile scandals and other celebrities that don’t apply to his situation. On the other hand, he’s shown a severe lack of awareness of what exactly constitutes plagiarism. He did graduate from high school in 2003. This is something he should have learned in grade school. I doubt anyone taught him how to share his toys, either.
Shia is shown out with his girlfriend, Mia Goth, in May, June and July. Credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet
I’d venture to guess that he feels so entitled and full of himself that he thinks this doesn’t matter, that he can plagiarize all he wants because he’s untouchable.
It’s obvious he’s trolling. The guy is douchetastic but I think the barrage of plagiarized apologies is actually pretty funny.
I always feel like i need a scalding hot clorox bath and a flea check after a Shia post
Yes, yes, yes! There’s just something so skeevy about him beyond his usual douche vibe. I really don’t get the appeal.
He’s a turd.
Is he stupid? Smoke too many doobies with Brad? How hard is it to go on twitter and say ‘I f*cked up, I’m sorry’, and be done with it (beyond not plagiarizing anyone’s work ever again)–not too hard to type, I did it in a couple of seconds. I mean honestly–I’d hate to be the guy who got kicked out of Hollywood, not because I couldn’t act–but because I was an idiot who cost the studios money. How is this going to affect ‘Fury’ or ‘N for Nymphomaniac’—how’s it going to look, when, instead of talking about the movies, people want to talk about his continuing plagiarism? Especially when he’s such an artiste. I wonder what Robert Redford thinks of him now–didn’t he start the Sundance Film festival, for struggling artists and directors–kind of like the guy whose work he completely ripped off.
I know you are a Brad fan but I didn’t think it was necessary for you to drag him into shia’s douchery. Shia has always been an ass way before filming fury with Brad and others.
Brad doesn’t have a rep as being douchy to anyone nor being unprofessional on set smoking weed.
Let Shia’s action stand on their own.
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! Hahahaha. Ha. This is my favourite thing for ages and ages and ages.
As Sixlet Minor would say, what a dingleberry.
Me too.
Jade Goody being my favourite.
It’s got to be trolling, and like AG said, with a sense of entitlement. If he truly felt bad, and he should, he’d stop.
Either that or something is seriously wrong with him that he can’t form any thoughts of his own.
I hate him.
It made me sad to read the comment that he graduated from high school, so he should know better. I agree he should, but I had high school graduates working for me in my former job who could barely read and write, I mean just barely. One didn’t understand how to put things in alphabetical order. So I think assuming that a high school grad would know how to credit an original author is, sadly, unrealistic.
That’s so true. I used to volunteer at my library’s adult literacy program. I tutored adults who were functionally illiterate. They were all U.S. born, mentally fit people. Many had high school diplomas. Our schools are just appalling.
Just going to throw this in there but sometimes its shocking how under diagnosed dyslexia or other learning difficulties are. I didn’t find out I was dyslexic until I was 11 or 12 and its only at 20 questioned if I have ADHD because I was a smart child and till this day people will still say “yeah but you’re clever you can’t be”. I was in even able to get A’s in my exams but if you gave me a piece of paper to read aloud I’d seriously struggle but if you gave it to me to read by myself then ask me verbally analyze the text there would be no problem.
@Faith, I’m sure that’s true, and the people I’m talking about were not stupid people. They were bright and willing and capable, but for one reason or another, our schools failed them. I mean, they passed them through to graduation, but they failed to teach them to read and write above about a second grade level. They may have needed treatment for dyslexia or just more help, but they didn’t get it. It was sad.
Every time I comment on a Shia post, I want to kick myself afterward. Why? Because even commenting provides unnecessary attention to one of the most mediocre actors of the 21st century.
I know it’s wrong, but it’s kind of hilarious too.
I’m laughing too.
Shia may be doing some meta trolling thing here, and it’s blatancy is cracking me up!
He seems like a douchebag, but I can totally appreciate the irony of plagerising an apology for plagerising. It’s funny. He can feel remorse when the copyright infringement from the film bites him in the a$$.
I used to adore this guy. Oh Shia, why you gotta break my heart by being such a douche nozzle all the time?
Excepting ‘Transformers’ (never saw) and ‘Indiana Jones’ (execrable), Shia’s performances are riveting. IRL, however, he’s a complete sh-t.
He and John Mayer should be BFFs- condescending, dismissive tools who think they’re above everyone else.
I think it’s kinda obvious at this point that he’s trolling. The joke’s supposed to be on us. Except that it’s pretty lame.
Agreed. He is trolling us and thinks he’s hilarious and clever for it. Hipster d-bag.
Wait a minute … Shia actually plagiarized the fake sign language interpreter at Nelson Mandela’s memorial??? Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
IKR?
I know. I laughed too.
We’re still listening to him?
I wish Alec Baldwin would just find him and bitchslap him already. He needs a good bitchslapping, and Alec is that kind of guy.
I don’t think he started out trolling, I reckon he really thought he could get away with plagiarizing. Now that he’s been caught he’s just plagiarizing everything to make it look like he was trolling the whole time.
His email, his film and his apology for copying it , were all genuine attempts to try and get away with using other peoples words, I think.
Agree 100% @Shaboo- can’t believe anyone thinks Shia is trying to be ironic and or funny. But seeing him in skinny pants and stupid looking boots gives me a good laugh. I could never take anyone seriously dressed that way.
What a tool.
He’s got to be on something. His behavior lately is just really bizarre.
I hate that he wears the camo pants and army gear every where. I feel like he likes the ‘imagine’ of a soldier but he didn’t do any of the work, its just a costume and its grating. Even when pumping gas he has the boots on, real soldiers don’t wear their stuff every single day. Douche.
so he’s plagiarizing his apologies for plagiarizing.
total lol.