The actor Shia LaBeouf was arrested early on Tuesday for alleged battery in New Orleans after apparently spending the long weekend partying across the city during Mardi Gras.
The New Orleans police department confirmed that at approximately 12.45am on Tuesday officers were called to Faubourg Marigny, located next to the French Quarter, the heart of the revelry, where LaBeouf was allegedly becoming increasingly aggressive at Royal Street Inn and Bar.
Court documents state that the bar manager attempted to escort LaBeouf out of the bar, during which the actor allegedly tried to hit him. Then after being removed, the actor allegedly punched one male patron who was helping the bar manager, before returning and punching a second man in the nose.
LaBeouf was then held down by bystanders until police arrived and he was taken to a hospital. He was later discharged, arrested and charged with two counts of simple battery.
He is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Tuesday afternoon, just as the culmination of New Orleans’s weeks-long, annual celebration of carnival hits its climax.
Thousands of people, mostly in various costumes, gathered in and outside Royal Street Inn and Bar later Tuesday. A bartender and a bouncer at the establishment said LeBeouf was not welcome back after his release from custody.
The celebrity gossip outlet TMZ posted a video of LaBeouf, purportedly taken early Tuesday morning, in which he is shirtless and exchanging words with another person. The video then reportedly shows the actor being attended to by paramedics.
Reports of LaBeouf engaging in unruly behavior across New Orleans have surfaced for several days. Robert Skuse, the doorman of Ms Mae’s, a local bar, told the Hollywood Reporter the actor showed up in a “somewhat belligerent state”.
“In the middle of the mayhem, he did the ‘Do you know who I am?’ bit,” Skuse said.
LaBeouf was reportedly asked to leave after trying to get behind the bar and serve drinks to customers.
LaBeouf has previously discussed his struggles with sobriety, crediting fellow actors Mel Gibson, Sean Penn and Josh Brolin for their help. He attended court-mandated rehab after a 2017 arrest in Savannah, Georgia, an experience that inspired his semi-autobiographical film, Honey Boy.
In 2020, FKA twigs, the English singer whose real name is Tahliah Barnett, sued LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, alleging a pattern of “relentless” abuse.
In the lawsuit and in an interview with the New York Times, Barnett said LaBeouf, whom she dated from 2018 to 2019 after meeting on the set of Honey Boy, knowingly exposed her to a sexually transmitted infection, attempted to strangle her and slammed her against a car. LaBeouf has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The pair reached a settlement in July 2025.
LaBeouf’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
