Analysis : Shia LaBeouf could lose millions from Daniel Clowes stunt

The negative publicity surrounding Shia LaBeouf accelerated today as he tweeted a cease and desist letter from Daniel Clowes' attorney, which included a storyboard for 'Daniel Boring' based on another Clowes creation.

The Transformers actor has been actively "apologizing" for his 'rip off' work, which started with the short film Howard Cantor.com. Most recently he hired a skywriter to help him apologize again, from altitude, with the words "I am sorry Daniel Clowes".

However, with today's latest tweets, the actor is creating a negative media loop that could undermine his career in 2014.

In fact, this is just the kind of off-camera behaviour that could force other actors, producers and studios to distance themselves from him.

Storyboard for my next short "Daniel Boring" its like Fassbinder meets half-baked Nabokov on Gilligan's Island pic.twitter.com/sarRnqYws4

— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) January 8, 2014

Back in 2011, Charlie Sheen's off-camera lifestyle became a serious media problem for 'Two And a Half Men'. Despite the actor's professionalism, and ability to do the show, producers finally axed him, and Sheen has never been able to recover his position as the world's highest paid TV star. Not that it would matter to Sheen, but his career has never been on the same footing since, despite his successes in other areas. He also went through a lot to make a comeback and that can't have been easy on him or his family.

cease pic.twitter.com/eoclLlPTDX

— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) January 8, 2014

Moving back to Shia LaBeouf, while a very talented actor, his off-camera work right here might seriously offend the very people that support him, and on top of that, if the media has a generally negative look on the actor, that might obscure any positive stuff he's doing.

From my perspective, it's a really dangerous line to take. I've seen other actors at the top fall flat because they felt they were untouchable and people got furious. Alec Baldwin recently lost his show because of his off-camera attitude and controversial tweets.

If I was on team LaBeouf I'd be seriously concerned however I have a lot of respect for him as an actor. I'd hate to see him fail because of what's happened recently. I think people can turn things around, and there's no reason why he can't make amends right now. I just hope he doesn't dig a deeper hole, because we're approaching the point of no return.