Prior to his turn as an investment banker/research analyst/junior trader/private wealth manager/PE guy in Money Never Sleeps, Shia Labeouf spent a lot of time on the Street, learning the tricks of the trade. At the Encino Charles Schwab office, he learned how to turn $20,000 into $489,000 in less than three months. A Citi, he learned how to program Bloomberg into his speed dial. At John Thomas Financial, he learned how to trade on his flip-phone. And at a diner in Lower Manhattan, after hesitating on American or Cheddar, he learned the hard way how one does and doesn’t get a job at Goldman Sachs. Unfortunately, one bit of wisdom Shia’s guru’s never thought to instill in him was how to go head to head with Marilyn Manson or take a punch from a shirtless guy in Canada. Continue reading »
Shia Labeouf
Shia LaBeouf was escorted out of the LA opening of The Box nightclub by security Friday night after a confrontation with a pal of shock rocker Marilyn Manson [after LaBeouf “picked up a water bottle...and started spitting it all over his tablemates, including Marilyn Manson"]. The “Transformers” star “exchanged terse words with a friend of Manson’s, who lunged over the table at Shia, and Shia lunged back. “Two security guards led Shia out holding his hands behind his head. Outside, he fell onto a barricade. Swearing, he picked himself up and ran off.” Despite numerous witnesses at the party, also attended by Jon Hamm, Lindsay Lohan and Chelsea Handler, Shia’s rep said: “[He] actually left the club early as planned … he went to see one of the bands performing in the showcase and left after they finished … exiting through a crowded room was apparently misinterpreted. No altercation occurred.” [NYP, earlier]
Daily Intel Jessica and I saw a screening of Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps last week. We haven’t shared our thoughts on it until now because we haven’t wanted to/been ready to talk about it. I’m not going to say it’s so bad you shouldn’t see it, but that’s just because it’s so bad it needs to be seen to be believed and we want more people to be able to share in our collective trauma. Like being stripped naked, covered in honey and sewn ass to mouth to your fellow members of the incoming Goldman Sachs analyst class, you can’t truly understand unless you’ve gone through something like that yourself. Continue reading »
Despite the fact that his co-star Shia Labeouf has the accumulated wisdom of several lunches with top brass at the Encino branch of Charles Schwab, sitting in on rounds 17-23 of the Goldman Sachs interview process, and months of studying for the CFA’s Level I exam only to come down with a stomach virus the day of the test, it was retired investor Mike D who will be talking shop at CLSA’s investor conference in Hong Kong this September. For those who question whether or not Douglas knows anything about investing in real life, and why he and not another I don’t know– THE GUY WHO HAS BLOOMBERG ON SPEED-DIAL– was invited, rest assured, MD knows what he’s talking about here. Continue reading »
“Don’t go expecting a movie that will give you some great intellectual or emotional insights into the Wall Street crisis. Sure, there are the obligatory “life on the trading floor” scenes and quasi-faithful recreations of arguments between Treasury and Wall Street at the oak-paneled New York Fed. And there are lots of cameos of CNBC anchors and Nouriel Roubini (as “Dr. Hashimi”) to give the movie “authenticity.” But the authenticity is as phony as Bernie Madoff’s investment returns. How many Fordham-educated prop traders with the last name “Moore” speak fluent Mandarin?” [WSJ via BI]
If Anyone Wants To Talk About What It Felt Like To Preside Over The Financial Crisis, Kevin Spacey’s Here For Ya
By Bess Levin
To research his role in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Shia LaBeouf spent a good deal of time at John Thomas Financial, an Encino branch of Charles Schwab and Goldman Sachs. It was there he learned how to stick $20,000 in an online brokerage account and turn it into $450,00-ish in a matter of months, wow the shit out of Lloyd Blankfein in the 47th round of interviews, and insider tips for passing Level I of the CFA. You know what he never did? Ask any of the guys he was shadowing about their feelings. Same goes for Penn Badgely, who spent some time on the Citi trading floor to prep for his role as a junior analyst in Margin Call (where he learned that “young traders sport ‘nice clothes that were not terribly tailored’ and that that the term ‘bucks’ means millions”). That’s because these two whippersnappers only care about the surface. They’re not interested in drilling down to the person underneath that suit and the fifties still stuck to your ass from the weekend. One guy who is? Kevin Spacey. He cares, deeply.
“I am trying to humanize bankers,” said Kevin Spacey, the Academy Award-winning actor, who plays a senior trader in Margin Call. “Everyone talks about facts, figures and debt. I was more interested in what they were feeling.”
“If Megan Fox were a Hollywood stock, should you buy, sell, or hold?” At least one thing to take into consideration is that she’s had Shia Labeouf’s tongue in her mouth. [NYM]
Josh Brolin’s Mouth-Running Threatening To Overshadow Shia LaBeouf’s Wall Street Career
By Bess Levin
As you undoubtedly know by now, during the course of his preparation for Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Shia LaBeouf became a master trader. He worked with the guys at Encino Charles Schwab office, Citi and John Thomas Financial, he turned $20,000 into almost half a mill, he’s thisclose to becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst and he knows exactly what it takes to get hired at Goldman Sachs. He’s spoken of his pedigree many, many times, under the guise of promoting the movie all the while communicating to Wall Street that there’s a new Josh Birnbaum in town and so far, things have been coming together quite nicely. He has offers coming out the ass, he senses that Lloyd is just waiting for the right moment to can Viniar and offer him the gig and re: Shia LaBeouf Capital Management, all I’m going to say is that it’s been communicated from Stamford that the seed money is there for the taking. And up until this point, the plan has gone off without a hitch, because his co-star, Josh Brolin, has kept his trap shut. You see, kids, because he achieved none of the theatrical success young Shia did at an early age, brolin had to start day trading in order to pay the bills. He achieved a tiny modicum of success but nothing like LaB. Did he trade on his cell phone? No! Did he have Bloomberg on speed-dial? No! And yet this prick is now going around telling people how fucking great he is at making it rain. Continue reading »
“You just had the flash-crash on Thursday. Here we are at Cannes. It’s almost like Rupert Murdoch made it happen,” said co-star Shia LaBeouf, referring to the chairman of News Corp., which owns 20th Century Fox, the studio releasing the film. “You’re down 1,000 points on Thursday, you’re up 300 points on Monday,” LaBeouf, who plays Gekko’s new protege, said in an interview. “You literally, just as I’m speaking to you, just went through the most tumultuous 30 minutes to ever hit the market in the history of Wall Street, and here we are promoting a movie. It’s wild that our movie’s taking place in this landscape. This is a firefight in the middle of the craziest money storm that has ever happened.”
Oliver Stone: People Are Shelling Out $10,000 A Ticket To See Shia LaBeouf’s Gucci Loafers
By Bess Levin
At least that’s what he claimed to Vulture on the eve of Money Never Sleeps premiering at Cannes.
What are you doing to relax before your movie premieres tomorrow?
[Laughs.] I’m trying to get tickets for people. “Friends.” It’s insane here. You know what a ticket’s going for here on this film, on the black market? 8,000 Euros! That’s about $10,000, I think … which is approximate, but still, amazing for a movie ticket.It’d be kind of ironic if this film in particular sparked a dangerously volatile futures market.
It’s a scalping thing. I heard we were the highest ticket at the festival. I had 25 “friends” call on the last day [before the film screened] to get in. That’s a dilemma you can’t get out of.
Stone also told the interviewer that though he had the chance to get Lloyd Blankfein’s notes on the flick, he declined to screen it for the li’l fella, assuming he wouldn’t like it, due to the criticism of “the banking class.” Which I think it unfair! Would LB have opened the doors of 85 Broad and allocated multiple partner managing directors to give Shia an insider look at what life is like at GS (and what it takes to get hired at the place) if he wasn’t looking forward to this thing?! Continue reading »
