Shia LaBeouf is ‘retiring from all public life’
After a series of public missteps, actor Shia LaBeouf declared today he is “retiring from all public life.”
In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life.
— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) January 10, 2014
Apparently Shia’s retirement wasn’t effective immediately. He followed up with two more messages.
“My love goes out to those who have supported me… #stopcreating,” he tweeted early Friday morning.
Shia came under fire late last year for allegedly plagiarizing Daniel Clowes’ novella, Justin M. Damiano, in his own short film, HowardCantour.com. Shia earned even more criticism for plagiarizing his public apology. Somehow making matters even worse, he hired a plane to skywrite “I am sorry Daniel Clowes.” Recognizing that was a bad strategy, Shia later tweeted, “there’s no excuse 4 skywriting.”
More recently, Shia’s attitude toward the situation seems to have turned from repentant to defensive. Yesterday he posted pictures of a formal cease and desist letter in which Daniel Clowes’ lawyers demanded Shia stop “further acts of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, conversion and other intentional and malicious wrongs in connection with Mr. Clowes’ and his tweet.” The letter also told Shia to “immediately take down” a tweet he posted about his “next short,” Daniel Boring, which the lawyers claim “misappropriates Mr. Clowes’ work David Boring.” Shia’s Daniel Boring tweet is still posted…
In terms of his acting career, Shia recently completed filming World War II-era Fury with Brad Pitt. He is surely contractually obligated to attend various premieres — which means his retirement “from all public life” may not come for a while.
