Shia LaBeouf has to quit booze or face ‘tragic ending’: sources

Shia LaBeouf was ordered to rehab last week after his New Orleans boozy rager, a penalty insiders derided as a “celebrity punishment” to Page Six — and one the star doesn’t think he needs.

Although the troubled actor had been lying low, his bar brawl with two men in which he allegedly hurled homophobic slurs during Mardi Gras celebrations in The Big Easy put him firmly back in the spotlight.

But those who know LaBeouf fear this punishment won’t truly help the 39-year-old “Transformers” star, who was charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple battery, with a third added Saturday.

Indeed, sources who have been in his orbit for years call him a “master manipulator” who is “very adept at playing the role of a good guy in recovery trying to be a better self.”

LaBeouf has long been accused of subjecting women in his life — including Brit singer FKA Twigs, his estranged wife Mia Goth and stylist Karolyn Pho — to toxic and abusive behavior.

“He’s just so good at convincing people and potential partners; they all fall for it,” said one LaBeouf source.

Page Six is told Goth came close to joining Twigs, real name Tahliah Barnett, in her 2020 suit against the star, in which she accused him of sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress.

“He’s so convincing when he says, ‘I’ve been in recovery, I’m making amends, I’m flawed — I had this terrible childhood and this terrible past,’” the source added.

On Thursday, LaBeouf – who was seen drinking a beer and kissing a woman after his Feb. 17 arrest outside the R Bar – avoided jail time by agreeing to enroll in substance abuse treatment, undergo drug testing and post a $100,000 bond.  

However, one legal source dubbed this “celebrity punishment,” adding it could involve the actor simply checking in to an online service.

“This guy has got to find a way to get sober or die; eventually this is all going to a tragic ending” said another source who knows LaBeouf.

“His behavior sounds like an addict,” the source added, “It’s just sad that someone with so much to live for continually puts himself at risk.”

Despite this, LaBeouf doesn’t believe he’s an addict — and doesn’t think he needs rehab.

In an interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan released Saturday morning before his second arrest, LaBeouf admitted, “It’s not nice to hurt people ever. It’s f–king lame. People got hurt. I got to deal with that. I’mma deal with that in full. I’ll eat it all,” he added. “It was on me. It’s not on them. It’s on me. I messed up.”

When asked if he takes responsibility for the fight, LaBeouf replied, “Definitely. Yeah. 1,000 percent.”

The actor said he believes he has a “small man complex,” explaining, “I think it’s something that has to do with anger and ego more so than my drinking.”

He added: “I’ll be honest with you, big gay people are scary to me. I’m standing by myself, and three gay dudes are next to me, touching my leg, I get scared. I’m sorry if that’s homophobic. Then I’m that.”

LaBeouf certainly appears a mess. He has been to rehab multiple times for alcohol addiction, including a 2014 arrest in NYC when he screamed out obscenities during a Broadway performance of “Cabaret”.

Following a 2017 disorderly conduct arrest in Savannah, Georgia, he was court-ordered to undergo inpatient rehab. He has since talked of being in a 12-step addiction program and, in 2022, claimed he was over 600 days sober.

Last year, the former child star, who shot to fame on Disney’s “Even Stevens” appeared at the Cannes Film Festival to promote the documentary “Slauson Rec”, which featured him raging at budding actors as he attempted to set up a theater group in South Central Los Angeles.

“The emotional terror LaBeouf wreaks borders on the inhumane,” a startling review by Variety read.

“I’ve done a lot of coming to terms with the failure that was my life, and the plastic foundation I had,” LaBeouf said on the red carpet alongside director Leo Lewis O’Neil, “I left a lot of people in the wake of my personality defects.”

“What I saw working on that film was a really brilliant artist, and part of his brilliance, I believe, comes from this live wire, somewhat manic energy that a lot of artists tap into,” Kevin Knight, the film’s editor told Page Six. “And that’s difficult to live with, that energy.

“A lot of people end up making art in the first place to deal with their issues. Shia’s never been afraid of admitting he has problems and the film is the embodiment of that too… He’s not a monster,” Knight insisted.

LaBeouf split with Goth — with whom he shares three-year-old daughter, Isabella — last year. She reportedly wants him to get help.

The couple met on Lars von Trier’s 2013 erotic drama “Nymphomaniac,” but their relationship was fraught and frequently on-and-off. Following a fight in Germany in July 2015, LaBeouf claimed he would have “killed” Goth if the incident had escalated.

The singer sued him the same year they split, claiming he knowingly exposed her to a sexually transmitted infection, attempted to strangle her and slammed her against a car. LaBeouf denied all allegations of wrongdoing.

Another former flame, Karolyn Pho, joined the suit. Along with Goth, now 32, another unnamed former lover had also considered joining, we’re told. However, they both pulled out and Goth soon reconciled with LaBeouf. The suit was later settled out of court.

Twigs is super private and only ever wanted him LaBeouf get help, friends say. She only took legal action when he refused – and didn’t want other women to go through what she went through.

“Now you can see that Mia has the same refrain, she just wants him to get help,” according to the LaBeouf source.

“He is a master manipulator,” they stressed. As well as playing the good guy and getting his life back on track, “he also plays the role of the bad boy about town. It’s why he’s as successful an actor as he is.”

LaBeouf — who counts singer FKA Twigs and actresses Megan Fox, Margaret Qualley and Carey Mulligan among his exes —follows a pattern of “love bombing” his girlfriends, the source alleged. He will “isolate them from their friends, and create fights if they look at another guy, so you are always looking down and not wanting a fight… there are patterns, people think there’s no playbook, when there actually is,” they claimed.

A joint statement between FKA Twigs and LaBeouf from the settlement of the lawsuit last July read, “While the details of the settlement will remain private, we wish each other personal happiness, professional success and peace.”

Page Six has reached out to reps for LaBeouf, Goth and Pho.

Last month a woman called Drina, who claimed she dated LaBeouf last year, posted audio clips on Tik Tok of the actor allegedly hurling abuse at her.

“Drina is genuinely convinced he is going to wind up in a hospital soon,” a source close to the woman told us, “Either because he harms himself or because someone is so scared they’ll have him committed. The arrest seems right on schedule for the latter timeline.”

Following his split from Goth, LaBeouf left Los Angeles. In December, he bought a three-bedroom cottage in New Orleans for just over a million dollars. Sources said he wanted to be close to his dad, Jeffrey, who lives close by.

But he was hauled into custody after punching two men while repeatedly insulting both with the word “f—t.”

One of the men, 34-year-old Nathan Thomas Reed, has publicly said he identifies as queer. The other, 49-year-old Jeffrey Damnit, has said he was wearing eyeshadow and lipstick at the time.

On Thursday, Orleans Parish Criminal Court Judge Simone Levine told LaBeouf it didn’t seem like he was taking “his alcohol addiction seriously” and doubted he could “handle his alcohol.”

Levine also denied LaBeouf’s request to travel to Rome in March for “religious observations,” which included his father’s baptism. He converted to Catholicism in 2023.

“This court does not believe he understands the level of seriousness when it comes to these allegations,” Levine said, adding that LaBeouf’s actions were a cause of concern regarding “the safety of this larger community, especially relative to a marginalized [LBGTQ+] community that has gone through so much terror.” LaBeouf is slated to return to court on March 19.

The star’s attorney, Sarah Chervinsky, said LaBeouf had turned himself Into the Orleans Parish Jail after learning New Orleans police had issued a new arrest warrant Friday, adding that “no regular person would be required to post over $100,000 in bonds and be jailed two separate times for one misdemeanor incident.”

So, can he return to Hollywood?

“Getting insurance for this guy on a project – that’s going to cost money,” claimed the legal source, while the other insider noted, “He needs to do the work for real, not just lip service, and then we will see.”