Shia LaBeouf may have plagiarized apology

By Tribute on December 19, 2013 | 6 Comments


Earlier this week, Shia LaBeouf was caught plagiarizing in his short film, HowardCantour.com, from Daniel Clowes’ comic, Justin M. Damiano. But it seems his tweets may not have been sincere, as reports say his apology was also plagiarized. Included in his public apology, the 27-year-old actor tweeted, “Copying isn’t particularly creative work. Being inspired be someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work.” Several publications found that this sentence was word-by-word copied, including the capitalized “IS” from an easily-traced Yahoo Answers post from four years ago. The post was made by a user in response to the question, “Why did Picasso say that ‘good artists copy but great artists steal?'”

Clowes’ editor, Eric Reynolds, also didn’t seem to think the star’s apology cut it, writing to Buzzfeed in an email, “His apology is a non-apology, absolving himself of the fact that he actively misled, at best, and lied, at worst, about the genesis of the film… He implied authorship in the film credits itself, and has gone even further in interview. He clearly doesn’t get it, and that’s disturbing… Fame clearly breeds a false sense of security.” After Reynolds’ letter went public, Shia took to Twitter once again for a more genuine attempt of apology, tweeting, “I have let my family down, and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart.” His second tweet stated, “I was wrong, terribly wrong. I owe it to future generations to explain why.”

Although his tweets seemed heartfelt, the first tweet is an exact copy of Tiger Woods’ 2009 public apology for cheating, and the second is from General Robert McNamara’s book about the Vietnam conflict, In Retrospect. It seems the only original statement from the star is his latest tweet, “It starts with this… I’m sorry @danielclowes.” ~Jennifer Yoo



Comments & Discussion

  1. Janelle • December 19, 2013 @ 10:27 AM

    It sounds like he doesn’t have an original thought in his head. He has to use other people’s apologies? He can’t even think one up himself? That’s pathetic.

  2. AJ • December 19, 2013 @ 1:01 PM

    This guy is awesome! Apologizing for plagiarizing by plagiarizing is genius.

  3. TheTruth • December 19, 2013 @ 7:08 PM

    Seems like he has a serious pathological problem. His previous altercation with Alec Baldwin and subsequent apology was also copied. How sad.

  4. Gus • December 19, 2013 @ 7:20 PM

    That is the funniest shyte ever! Cant everyone see he is doing this firmly with tongue in cheek? He is a genius as @AJ says!

  5. J.C. Ash • December 19, 2013 @ 9:27 PM

    To steal from one person is plagiarizing . To steal from many is called research …nothing is new it has all been done before …so who gives a shit only narrow minded news reporters who cause problems for everyone ….

  6. J. • December 20, 2013 @ 10:00 AM

    Seems pretty pathetic to me. How fake can you be?


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