Shia LaBeouf Plagiarized Apology Email, Ben Foster Replacing Him on Broadway

USMagazine, Thursday, February 21, 2013, 11:20am (PST)

Why was Shia LaBeouf's apology email written as a soliloquy? Because that's how Tom Chiarella, Fiction Editor at Esquire magazine, penned it.

Following a Wednesday, Feb. 20 announcement from producers that the Transformers actor would be leaving Broadway's Orphans "due to creative differences," LaBeouf, 26, shared lengthy, eloquent email exchanges between himself and his coworkers further explaining his departure. The featured email was one sent by LaBeouf with the subject line, "Apology," but it turns out he didn't actually write it himself.

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As Gawker uncovered, LaBeouf's note was as direct quote from Tom Chiarella's "What Is a Man?" essay, which was featured in Esquire's "How to Be a Man" issue in 2009. To his credit, LaBeouf did add a few of his own lines about costar Alec Baldwin, to whom he apologized for his "part of a disagreeable situation."

In addition to posting screen shots of the responses he received from Baldwin, director Daniel Sullivan, playwright Lyle Kessler and costar Tom Sturridge, LaBeouf has also been tweeting a quotes that seem to express his feelings of leaving the show.

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"It's no wonder truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense -- Mark Twain." he wrote.

But the show must go on. Orphans has already cast a replacement for LaBeouf's role.

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Ben Foster, known for his roles in 3:10 to Yuma and HBO's Six Feet Under, is joining the cast, producers announced Thursday. Foster, 32, had previously auditioned for the role and will start rehearsals Friday.

"Ben Foster is a beast," LaBeouf tweeted after hearing the casting news. "He will kill it."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Shia LaBeouf Plagiarized Apology Email, Ben Foster Replacing Him on Broadway