Yesterday, Shia LaBeouf finally released his short,
HowardCantour.com. It was a rather impressive film, focusing on the life of an online film critic (played by Jim Gaffigan). Though, there was one major issue with the short, it was lifted from a 2007 comic ("Justin M. Damiano") written and illustrated by Daniel Clowes. Keep in mind, Shia debuted
HowardCantour.com at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and for over a year has done interview after interview promoting this short film, yet at no time did he ever credit Daniel Clowes'
Justin M. Damiano comic. Here is what he had to say via his
twitter account.
Apparently Shia can't even apologize without plagiarizing. BuzzFeed did a little digging and noticed that Shia's first tweet addressing the issue heavily steals from a user ("Lili") on a Yahoo! Answers post about plagiarism
Lili answered 4 year ago
Merely copying isn't particularly creative work, though it's useful as training and practice. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different IS creative work, and it may even revolutionalize the "stolen" concept.
For Shia to insinuate that he was merely inspired by Clowes' work, and not own up to his theft makes me sick. There is nothing "inspired" about taking material from Clowes' comic WORD-FOR-WORD. Dialogue from the comic wasn't the only thing lifted. He shot the short so closely to Clowes' comic that it makes the comic come off as a storyboard for HowardCantour.com.
Also, for Shia to try and hide behind the "amateur filmmaker" label is disgusting as well. We're talking about an actor that has been born and raised in the Hollywood system and has no excuse for not understanding intellectual theft, let alone "proper accreditation." Sorry Shia, but this doesn't make you even stevens.
I'm embarrassed for you too, Shia. You had well over a year and countless interviews to slip in a simple credit for the guy that wrote your short, yet somehow his name slipped your mind, for over a year. To claim that Justin M. Damiano served merely as your "inspiration" is a farce. Word-for-word, shot-for-shot copies don't come from inspiration, they come from a pathetic actor sitting at his computer typing up a script from another man's comic and hoping that nobody will ever find out. Son, you've been caught. Own up, or shut up.
Silly us. We assume you wrote it, cause you convened that you wrote it. When you, Shia LaBeouf, stated: "As I tried to empathize with the sort of man who might earn a living taking potshots at me and the people I’ve worked with, a small script developed."
He had so much respect for Clowes work that he at no point tried to contact Clowes. “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.
Then again, we should've expected something like this from Shia. He was previously caught plagiarizing a 2009 Esquire article. He copied and pasted material word-for-word from the article and sent it to Alec Baldwin in an email while they were feuding. Guess we have a serial plagiarist on our hands.
Yup, you sure did Arseface.
Justin M. Damiano by Daniel Clowes