I’m sure you’ve heard about the Shia LaBeouf incident this weekend? In short, was at a local bar on Friday night/Saturday morning with friends, a regular hangout he’s been known to visit once, twice a week. He was drunk which is, I think, what usually happens when young guys hit up the bar. As he was leaving, a fight broke out. Shia was smacked in the face after charging another dude. The cops came and he was briefly cuffed. Once the cops sorted it all out though, no arrests were made, everyone was told to go home and dry out. So… kinda like what happens at your neighbourhood pub every weekend too. Only in this case a celebrity was involved.

Conventional wisdom, at least in these parts, is that the celebrity was the one being a dick. Most of the time, as you know, this is my world view. But here’s how it went down for Shia that night.

He was with his boys. Some dude called Mark Mastro – who told his story to Radar Online, with video – went up to Shia’s table, SAT DOWN, and fangirled all over him. I think I’ve already made it known what I think when civilians approach celebrities. It’s fine, I guess, at a premiere or something. But like this? At a bar? To crash his space and get all up in his face? It’s gross. This is GROSS. I had dinner not too long ago with some friends, one is an actor. During our time at the restaurant I could see two women trying to be discreet about staring at our table. They got up to use the bathroom several times, making flybys to get a good look. You could tell they were deliberately drawing our their stay. And when we got up to leave, they f-cking followed us out of the place and finally got their photo. For why? To put on Facebook? Sorry, but it’s a loser move.

And Shia deflected the loser by telling Mark Mastro he wasn’t into having his picture taken and just wanted to chill. You can picture Mark Mastro though, right? He’s the every-douche, too cool for school with a fake tan, an earring, a tattoo somewhere, and calls everyone “bro”.

Later on, Mark Mastro was outside with his buddies as Shia was leaving. Mark Mastro’s friend tried to get Shia’s attention – what’s up? Shia wasn’t feeling it and told them to f-ck off. Which is when Mark Mastro turned to his friend and declared:

“Don’t worry, he’s just a f-cking f-ggot anyway.”

Shia took offence, lost his sh-t, all hell broke loose, and apparently he ended up getting punched in the face. So now Mark Mastro and his friends are all like – he’s a violent drunk, man. We didn’t do nothin’ wrong.

Right. So first you get up in his face like a f-cking loser begging him to be your best friend. Then you drop a homophobic slur? And now I’m supposed to hate on Shia LaBeouf?

Look, violence is wrong. And, frankly, guys who lose their cool so easily, to me at least, are not sexy. Shia has some anger issues that are exacerbated by alcohol. He also needs a thicker skin. But …I would have found it hard to not let those pricks have it too. Ultimately Shia’s actions have given them something to talk about and in the end, in these situations, any engagement is a mistake. When you acknowledge them, they win. Which I guess is how I see THIS particular situation.

Having said that, the larger issue here is that Shia is apparently developing a reputation for causing problems every time he goes out drinking. According to TMZ, Shia brawls happen on the regular, and he’s always the instigator. And in those instances, a homophobic slur has nothing to do with it. Why is Shia so angry? I talked to someone recently who works with a lot of child stars. She said to me – wouldn’t you be angry if you were put into a profession you didn’t choose, which supports the family, and gets you the house and the car and everything, so then you feel guilty about resenting it, but you don’t know what else there is out there?


File photo from Wenn.com