A couple days ago, everyone realized that Shia LaBeouf basically stole an entire short film’s worth of material from a comic book, because original thought is hard. And of course, he then stole his apology, because why wouldn’t he? If you can plagiarize once, you can plagiarize your career right into the ground! Which is exactly what he’s doing, because according to Film Drunk, he just went ahead and stole ideas and concepts from Bukowski as well as The Little Girl and the Cigarette. Oh, and when they found him out, he stole even more.
So far, it all seems part of some pattern of pathological plagiarizing. But here’s the part that makes me wonder if he’s screwing with us, or trying to: In his latest Twitter apology, he’s plagiarized some other famous apologies. “I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart,” comes from Tiger Woods, while “I was wrong, terribly wrong. I owe it to future generations to explain why,” was adapted from the preface of a Vietnam book by former defense secretary Robert McNamara.
You can argue whether or not Shia is purposely trolling at this point, or making some sort of living art piece about plagiarism, or if he’s actually a pathological thief because he figures he can get away with it, but I think the one common thread in all of these arguments is that Shia LaBeouf is a sh!thead. I think we can all agree on that.