LaBeouf may not laugh after this drunk driving
Again, a Hollywood star with the world at his feet has gotten drunk, driven his car in the middle of the night and been involved in a traffic accident.
This time it was Shia LaBeouf, star of this summer’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and last year’s Transformers. Now Transformers’ sequel will fall behind schedule because LaBeouf required extensive surgery on his left hand after the accident.
In the accident at 3 a.m. Sunday in West Hollywood, LaBeouf also had injuries to his head and knee. A female passenger in his car and the driver of the other vehicle were not seriously hurt and did not require hospitalization.
Their survival is lucky, given the nature of the collision. After another vehicle ran a red light, it collided with LaBeouf’s vehicle, which rolled over and wound up roof-down. Though LaBeouf didn’t cause the accident, when police noticed his behavior afterward, they cited him for misdemeanor drunk driving.
LaBeouf was arrested earlier this year for being intoxicated and stirring an argument at a Chicago Walgreens store. He later joked to David Letterman, “Drinking and driving is one thing, but drinking and shopping . . . it’s just as bad.”
Actually, Shia, it’s not, and this flippant attitude toward seriously dangerous drunk driving could cost you or someone else their life. And in the purely cold-cash terms of your industry, your late-night partying and one-month recuperation will cost Transformers 2 delays in production while the meter runs on its investment. You don’t see Lindsay Lohan getting choice roles anymore, do you? Studio suits frown on protracted production delays, and you don’t want to cause them.
No, instead of being laugh-worthy on Late Night, drunk driving deserves our outrage for the ceaseless tragedies it causes on America’s streets and highways. Every day, heedless drivers indulge in the nation’s most powerful and widely used legal drug, alcohol, then operate heavy machinery — a car or other vehicle — that’s often driven at high speeds.
Just like drunken shopping, right? Not even close.
What LaBeouf and those like him need is to be true transformers themselves — to change from a lifestyle of drunk driving to a responsible alternative — before it’s too late and they can’t joke about it.
The galling thing about LaBeouf’s drunk driving is that he could have had his drinks without endangering lives. The 22-year-old actor has salaries in the millions and easily could hire a driver to take him wherever he wants to go. Instead, he gets drunk — again — then drives his own vehicle in the middle of the night , when in some ways the streets are most dangerous.
Shia, since you think shopping is funny, try shopping for a professional driver. Many of us would welcome that luxury even while sober, and your partying habits would make it even more meaningful. Consider this a wakeup call for you and other denizens of “The Kingdom of the Thick Skulls.”
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