Shia LaBeouf was ordered into rehab after going on a boozy rampage in New Orleans last week, a penalty that insiders dubbed Page Six’s “celebrity punishment,” but Shia LaBeouf doesn’t think it’s necessary.
The troubled actor has remained silent, but was thrust back into the spotlight after a brawl with two men at a bar who allegedly hurled homophobic slurs at a Mardi Gras celebration in The Big Easy.
But those who know LaBeouf are concerned that the latest punishment won’t really help the 39-year-old “Transformers” star, who was charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, with a third charge added on Saturday.
In fact, a source who has been involved in his activities for years calls him a “master manipulator” who is “extremely adept at playing the role of a good guy in recovery striving to become a better version of himself.”
LaBeouf has long been accused of subjecting the women in his life to harmful and abusive behavior, including British singer FKA Twigs, estranged wife Mia Goth, and stylist Carolyn Pho.
“He’s very good at convincing people and potential partners. They all fall for it,” said one LaBeouf insider.
Page Six is said to have said that Goss nearly accused Twigs of sexual assault, assault, and infliction of emotional distress in a 2020 lawsuit against Twigs (real name Talia Barnett).
“When he says, ‘I’m recovering, I’m making amends, I’m flawed — I had this horrible childhood and this horrible past,’ it’s very convincing,” the source added.
On Thursday, LaBeouf, who was seen drinking beer and kissing a woman after his Feb. 17 arrest outside the R Bar, agreed to enroll in substance abuse treatment, undergo drug testing and post $100,000 bail, avoiding jail time.
However, one legal source called this “celebrity punishment” and added that the actor may have simply checked into an online service.
Another source who knows Mr. LaBeouf said, “This man has to find a way to get sober or die. In the end, it’s all going to end tragically.”
“His actions sound like that of an addict,” the source said, adding, “It’s really sad that someone who has so much to live for is constantly putting himself at risk.”
Despite this, LaBeouf does not believe he is an addict or in need of rehabilitation.
In an interview with YouTuber Andrew Callahan published Saturday morning ahead of his second arrest, LaBeouf admitted, adding, “It’s never okay to hurt people. It’s fucking awful. People got hurt. I have to deal with it. I totally deal with it. I’m going to eat it all.” “It was my fault. Not theirs. It was my fault. I failed.”
When asked if he was responsible for the fight, LaBeouf replied, “Absolutely, yes. 1,000 percent.”
The actor said he believed he had a “little man complex” and explained, “I think it has more to do with anger and ego than drinking.”
He added: “Honestly, big gay people are scary for me. I’m standing alone and three gay people are next to me touching my legs and it scares me. I’m sorry if that’s homophobic, but that’s who I am.”
Mr. LaBeouf certainly seems confused. He has been in rehab multiple times for alcoholism, including in New York in 2014 when he was arrested for yelling obscenities during a Broadway production of “Cabaret.”
After being arrested for disorderly conduct in Savannah, Georgia in 2017, he was ordered by a court to undergo inpatient rehabilitation. He has since said he has undergone a 12-step addiction program and claimed to have been sober for more than 600 days in 2022.
The former child star, who shot to fame last year with Disney’s “Even Stevens,” appeared at the Cannes Film Festival to promote his documentary “Slauson Wreck,” about his rage against up-and-coming actors as he tries to start a theater company in South Central Los Angeles.
“The emotional horror that LaBeouf evokes borders on the inhuman,” says Variety magazine’s startling review.
“I have come to terms with the failures of my life and the foundations I have built many times,” LaBeouf said on the red carpet with director Leo Louis O’Neal. “I have broken up with many people because of my character flaws.”
“He was a really great artist when I saw him working on that movie, and I believe part of his brilliance comes from this raw wire, somewhat manic energy that a lot of artists tap into,” the film’s editor Kevin Knight told Page Six. “And it’s hard to live with that energy.
“A lot of people end up making art to deal with their problems. Shia was never afraid to admit he had a problem, and this movie represents that…He’s not a monster,” Knight insisted.
LaBeouf split from Goss last year, with whom he shares 3-year-old daughter Isabella. She is reportedly asking him for help.
The pair met on Lars von Trier’s 2013 erotic drama Nymphomaniac, but their relationship was rocky and on-and-off. After the fight in Germany in July 2015, LaBeouf claimed that he would have “killed” Goss if the incident had escalated.
The same year they broke up, the singer sued him, accusing him of intentionally infecting her with sexually transmitted diseases, trying to strangle her and slamming her into a car. Mr. LaBeouf has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
Another ex-girlfriend, Carolyn Pho, also joined the lawsuit. In addition to Goss, now 32, another unnamed ex-girlfriend was also considering taking part. However, they both backed out, and Goss soon reconciled with LaBeouf. The lawsuit was later settled out of court.
Friends say Twigs was extremely private and just wanted LaBeouf to help her. She only took legal action if he refused, and she didn’t want other women to go through what she went through.
A LaBeouf source said, “You can tell that Mia is holding back as well. She’s just asking him for help.”
“He is a master manipulator,” they emphasized. In addition to playing the good guys and rebuilding their lives, “he also plays the bad guys in town. That’s why he’s been so successful as an actor.”
Sources claimed that LaBeouf, who counts singer FKA Twigs and actresses Megan Fox, Margaret Qualley and Carey Mulligan as ex-girlfriends, follows a pattern of “love bombing” his girlfriends. He “isolates them from their friends and seeing other guys causes fights so you’re always looking down and don’t want to get into fights… There’s a pattern and people think there’s no strategy when in fact there is a strategy,” they claimed.
A joint statement from FKA Twigs and LaBeouf when the lawsuit was settled last July read: “While the details of the settlement will remain private, we wish each other personal happiness, professional success and peace.”
Page Six has reached out to representatives for LaBeouf, Goss, and Foe.
Last month, a woman named Dorina, who claims to have dated LaBeouf last year, posted an audio clip on Tik Tok of LaBeouf allegedly verbally abusing her.
“I’m absolutely convinced that Mr. Drina will be going to the hospital soon,” a source close to the woman told us, “either because he harmed himself or because he’s very afraid of someone committing himself. An arrest appears to be on the cards for the latter.”
After his separation from Goss, LaBeouf left Los Angeles. In December, he bought a three-bedroom cottage in New Orleans for just over $1 million. Officials said he wanted to be close to his father, Jeffrey, who lives nearby.
However, he punched two men while repeatedly insulting them with the word “ft” and was taken into custody.
One of the men, Nathan Thomas Reed, 34, openly identifies as queer. Another man, Jeffrey Damnit, 49, said he was wearing eye shadow and lipstick at the time.
On Thursday, Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Simone Levine told LaBeouf that he did not seem to take his “alcoholism seriously” and doubted whether he could “cope with alcohol.”
Mr. Levine also denied Mr. LaBeouf’s request to travel to Rome in March for a “religious visit,” including the baptism of his father. He converted to Catholicism in 2023.
“This court does not believe that Mr. LaBeouf understands the level of seriousness of these allegations,” Levine said, adding that Mr. LaBeouf’s actions are a cause for concern regarding “the safety of this larger community, especially as compared to the marginalized (LBGTQ+) community that has experienced so much terrorism.” LaBeouf is scheduled to return to court on March 19th.
Starr’s attorney, Sarah Cherbinski, said LaBeouf turned himself in to the Orleans Parish Jail on Friday after learning that New Orleans police had issued a new arrest warrant, adding, “No ordinary person would have to post bail of more than $100,000 and be incarcerated twice for a single misdemeanor case.”
So can he return to Hollywood?
“It’s going to cost money to insure this guy on the project,” one legal source argued, while another said: “He needs to put in the work and not just pay lip service. What happens after that?”
