Received a well timed email yesterday from Sam who may have to defer acceptance to grad school in England, is stuck on jury duty all week, and needs a Shia LaBeouf pick-me-up.

Hooker, it’s like he heard you.

And I DO care. And I am very, very, very honoured that you considered being Canadian for the SMUT Soiree. As for your questions about his Disappearing Act, why there are so few candids of Shia etc – yes, he really, really is one of those who actually wants to evade the paps, who doesn’t invite the attention, who really won’t engage in the fame game when he doesn’t have to.

There’s a story I forgot to tell from Cannes. We were at the Wall Street Money Never Sleeps afterparty. It was a tight guest list, a very exclusive event, not the kind of venue where they rope off a VIP section because the stars have to be protected from the riffraff. On these occasions, they come hoping and trusting that they can roam in the open, without having to be too much on guard. Select media are invited. And it’s tacitly understood that there is to be no fangirling, no interviewing, no photo-taking, not even any talking unless it happens organically.

To go for the approach is painfully, painfully uncool. It’s like being a Twi-Hard. Instead, you make your observations for reporting in other ways. And that’s how it rolls, from festival to festival, junket to junket, party to party. Except there was a journalist from a very clean, respectable publication who didn’t seem to know the code. She pulled her notebook out right away, at the f-cking bar (!!!), lurked at Michael Douglas’s shoulder for 15 minutes until she could corner him for a quote.

Douglas is a pro. He’s been around it so many times, he handled it smoothly, unruffled. But Shia, Shia wouldn’t play. And Shia gave her the hand in her face. Straight up shut her down. Twice. She tried TWICE. And he rejected it twice. We can discuss the protocol and the propriety another time. The point here is to say that Shia genuinely, genuinely wants privacy and is still very, very uncomfortable when put in situations where he thinks he might be able to guard it.

Photos attached of Shia yesterday out and about, looking relaxed and healthy, rolling a cigarette before getting in his car after lunch. Last I heard 3 weeks ago, he and Carey are fine.


Photos from Fame