Shia LaBeouf's apology for plagiarizing script may itself be plagiarized

The actor copied "Ghost World" cartoonist Daniel Clowes' work and allegedly copied part of his apology, too

Published December 17, 2013 5:09PM (EST)

Veteran apology plagiarizer and sometime actor Shia LaBeouf has proven once again that he has mastered usage of the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V functions on his computer after apologizing for copying "Ghost World" cartoonist Daniel Clowes' work -- with an apology that bears uncanny similarity to a Yahoo! Answers post, reports BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed notes that LaBeouf's short film, "HowardCantour.com," released on Monday, "is almost a direct adaptation of 'Justin M. Damiano,' a 2007 comic written and drawn by famed artist Daniel Clowes," of whom LaBeouf is a longtime fan. The film does not credit or mention Clowes' comic at all, however, and LaBeouf makes no mention of Clowes in interviews discussing the film.

“The first I ever heard of the film was this morning when someone sent me a link. I’ve never spoken to or met Mr. LaBeouf,” Clowes told BuzzFeed. “I’ve never even seen one of his films that I can recall — and I was shocked, to say the least, when I saw that he took the script and even many of the visuals from a very personal story I did six or seven years ago and passed it off as his own work. I actually can’t imagine what was going through his mind.”

On Monday night, the actor responded to the allegations with a series of apologetic tweets -- the first of which bears a strong resemblance to this Yahoo! Answers response:

[embedtweet id="412835090671357952"]

[embedtweet id="412835161127276544"]

[embedtweet id="412835199731638272"]

[embedtweet id="412835215758082048"]

And then, there was this:

[embedtweet id="412852153649496064"]

Perhaps Shia LaBeouf has a problem with plagiarism. Or, perhaps he has been Inceptioned, and it's all just playing out now?


By Prachi Gupta

Prachi Gupta is an Assistant News Editor for Salon, focusing on pop culture. Follow her on Twitter at @prachigu or email her at pgupta@salon.com.

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Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Apology Celebrity Daniel Clowes Movies Plagiarism Shia Labeouf