4 Jan – Shia LaBeouf, the lead actor in the "Transformers" movies, writes and organises an apology to comic artist Daniel Clowes via a skywriting company to spell out "I am sorry Daniel Clowes" over Los Angeles on New Year's Day. LaBeouf came under fire after it was revealed that the premise for his short film, "HowardCantour.com", was lifted from comic artist Daniel Clowes without permission. LaBeouf's short, about an online film critic, included striking similarities to, and often whole sections of dialogue lifted from, Clowes' 2007 comic "Justin M. Damiano."
"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 said. "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." "In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation," said LaBeouf through his Twitter, "I'm embarrassed that I failed to credit @danielclowes for his original graphic novella Justin M. Damiano, which served as my inspiration."
The actor also showed his remorse in further tweets including things like, "I am sorry for the hurt and pain that my actions caused. This is not a publicity stunt." Clowes is reportedly mulling legal action.