Shia LaBeouf announces retirement from ‘public life’ — maybe

Some celebs use Twitter to announce they’re quitting, well, Twitter. Shia LaBeouf on the other hand, just used it to say he’s quitting all public life.

“In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life,� he wrote, following up with, “My love goes out to those who have supported me� and a tweet that was simply a hashtag: “#stopcreating.�

LaBeouf has recently faced criticism over his short film “HowardCantour.com,� which, as Buzzfeed reported, he lifted liberally, without attribution, from “Justin M. Damiano,� a 2007 comic written and drawn by artist Daniel Clowes. So liberally that the narration was word-for-word taken from the comic, according to Jacket Copy.

LaBeouf apologized in mid-December via a series of tweets, writing, “Copying isn’t particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work. In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation. Im embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration. I was truly moved by his piece of work & I knew that it would make a poignant & relevant short. I apologize to all who assumed I wrote it. I deeply regret the manner in which these events have unfolded and want @danielclowes to know that I have a great respect for his work.�

As Buzzfeed pointed out, at least the first part of that Twitter sequence was partially lifted from someone else, a Yahoo Answers commenter.

After that, LaBeouf tweeted apparently insincere apology after apology before finally saying on New Year’s Eve, “You have my apologies for offending you for thinking I was being serious instead of accurately realizing I was mocking you.�

On New Year’s Day, the actor posted an aerial apology, saying “I am sorry Daniel Clowes� in skywriting. He had the skywriting done in Southern California, while Clowes lives up north in the Bay Area.

But it appears that the straw that broke the cease-and-desist camel’s back came with a Wednesday tweet in which LaBeouf captioned a photo, “Storyboard for my next short ‘Daniel Boring’ its like Fassbinder meets half-baked Nabokov on Gilligan’s Island.�

“David Boring� is a comic series by Clowes, the New York Daily News noted in a story about LaBeouf posting a cease-and-desist letter from Clowes’ camp the same day -- a letter alleging that the tweet constituted additional copyright infringement.

Skip to Friday and we have LaBeouf’s claim he’s retiring from public life. Which makes us wonder, in context, is he being serious, or just doing some more mocking? Perhaps the latter, as he finally tweeted a photo of the #stopcreating hashtag -- as skywriting.

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