Publicity Stunt Or Reality? Actor Shia LaBeouf Uses Skywriter To Announce He's Retiring

SANTA MONICA (CBSLA.com) — Actor Shia LaBeouf, known for his roles in the "Transformers" series and the former Disney show "Even Stevens," announced he's retiring from public life in a very public way.

#stopcreating pic.twitter.com/G1F3G9EITH

— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) January 10, 2014

The 27-year-old actor hired a plane Friday to write "#stopcreating" over Santa Monica and Silver Lake, explaining via Twitter to his more than 89,000 followers that he was presumably bowing out of his acting career:

In light of the recent attacks against my artistic integrity, I am retiring from all public life.

— Shia LaBeouf (@thecampaignbook) January 10, 2014

The self-imposed exile comes on the heels of accusations that he plagiarized the story for his new short film HowardCantour.com.

LaBeouf apologized on Twitter saying he didn't copy the idea but was inspired by the original work.

"It's embarrassing for him, this whole scandal of plagiarism, because it's pretty clear if you look at the two works that they're very similar. I think that probably got to him," according to The Hollywood Reporter's Executive Editor Matt Belloni.

Belloni says don't count LaBeouf out just yet. The actor just wrapped up a role in Lars von Trier's movie "Nymphomaniac."

"Typically when actors sign on to a film they also sign on to promote that film. He's, by far, the biggest star in that film, so I think that his retirement will be short-lived," Belloni said. "I think he's just going through some hard stuff and working it out on Twitter."

While LaBeouf has been criticized he's also gotten a lot of support from fans, who are also taking to Twitter to vocalize their feelings.