Stop giving Shia Labeouf 18,452 chances

Raise your hand if you're a millennial who once had a crush on Shia Labeouf.

Guilty as charged. I watched Even Stevens, but the performance that reeled me in was his portrayal of a brother with a disability in The Disney Channel movie Tru Confessions. I don't remember the content of the movie, but I do know one scene of his brought tears to my eyes.

My fascination with him wasn't entirely because of looks. It's because there was something that always felt attainable about him like he could be your friend. He wasn't your typical Adonis type for someone so famous, and he knew it. Dolly Parton wasn't his godmother. He was a Jewish kid in Echo Park who lied about his age to get an agent. He would pop off in interviews like a shaken-up soda can, speaking rather candidly for a celebrity. Also, he was close in age to me, and I felt like I had grown up with him.

Sadly, once Selena Gomez and Megan Fox revealed they also had crushes, I felt less optimistic about my chances.

I took in his movies: Holes, Disturbia, Transformers. I bought the Vanity Fair cover that declared him "The Next Tom Hanks." It was the age when Lindsay Lohan was in her partying heyday, and he'd said, "She's a talented actress, but she's made some scary decisions." He was blowing up. He was Hollywood's It Boy. With great talent comes great responsibility. I believed him when he said he wouldn't touch a drop of alcohol until filming Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was over.

Then began the public mess-ups. The DUIs. The public mea culpa on shows like Letterman. Over the years, I've thought, "What's he done now?" when yet another arrest happened. More quotes like, "I can't fuck with none of it (alcohol)" after these arrests. I grew bored and disengaged.

I should mention that I came close to seeing him in person once. When I lived in New York City, once in a blue moon, I'd catch a glimpse of a celebrity. I used to live near Lincoln Center. One day walking home from work, in broad daylight, I stumbled upon an event for Transformers 3. It was small, but there were certainly onlookers. Josh Duhamel was easy to spot, tall, orange-tan, shaking hands and grinning. Rosie Huntington Whiteley posed gamely for photographers while people gushed about her beauty. Then I heard immediate cries of "Shia! Shia!" but couldn't see him. Apparently he'd darted instantly from the limo to inside.

I forget which DUI this was after.

I sympathize with the pressures of child stars. But during another adventure, I went to the Upper East Side to glimpse the Met Ball. This was the year Blake Lively had red hair and was dressed like Venus on the half shell. Jennifer Lopez, in her On the Floor days, walked to a spot where she could smile and wave at the crowd. Shia couldn't be bothered to say hello when his colleagues and bigger stars than him could?

Too much fame, too young.

My crush faded, but I still watched Honey Boy. Still read interviews to see what batshit-crazy-yet-true thing Shia would say next.

Then came the FKA Twigs allegations. The quotes about her feeling like a frog boiling slowly to death in hot water. The stories about him strangling her, shooting dogs, knowingly giving her an STD. These were followed up with stories from Sia and his ex-girlfriend Karolyn Pho, who said he head-butted her and made her bleed.

Of course, what happened in Twigs's lawsuit? Everything was dropped. Shia seemed to get off scot-free. When I saw a paparazzi shot of him filming a movie, I rolled my eyes so hard I thought they'd fall out of my head.

Now he's back promoting a movie or film where he's a Catholic priest. Conveniently, he decides to say he converted to Catholicism. His horrific behavior drove him to convert. He self-flagellates himself verbally and publicly.

It's an act. It's performative. It's a pattern. He does this every time. But we keep giving him chances because he's candid, sometimes funny, and from what we remember, talented.

He is all of those things. He is talented, too smart for his own good, and highly self-aware for someone so publicly self-destructive.

But above all, Shia Labeouf is an asshole. He's a piece of shit. Don't forget it.

Signed,

One of the many you've let down