Culturite

A video surfaced on YouTube on Tuesday showing Shia LaBeouf in a slapping contest with a friend where the “Indiana Jones” actor hurls anti-gay slurs to encourage his friend to slap him.

A rep for the actor told E!’s Marc Malkin that he is “embarrassed” by the video, where LaBeouf is seen calling his friend a “f—-t” multiple times.

“The videotape that is currently being circulated is several years old and captures Shia playing a game among friends in which he uses a derogatory word toward a friend,” a rep for the actor tells Malkin.

“He regrets having used the word in any capacity and is very embarrassed that this footage is being seen by anyone,” the rep said.

This isn’t the first controversy for the 22-year-old actor.

An arrest warrant was issued for LaBeouf earlier this year after failing to appear in court to face an illegal smoking charge.

The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established June 1. It is a court-mandated Commission, which is the result of an agreement amongst residential school survivors and representatives of aboriginal people, churches and the government of Canada. The Commission is charged with the tasks of assisting Canadians to know and understand the truth of our Indian Residential School legacy and of promoting reconciliation through new relationships embedded in mutual recognition and respect.

The Commission is in the very early stages of its mandate. As the Commissioners we are committed to listening, with open minds and hearts, to the stories and other histories of the Indian Residential School experience and legacy.

“Aboriginal
children were the only children in Canadian history who, over an extended
period of time, were statutorily designated to live in institutions primarily
because of their race.  Large
numbers of school-aged Aboriginal children, at times up to one-third of
them, were sent to residential schools.  In
some communities, this institutionalization continued for decades, and
affected many generations.”

Wednesday marked the first time a Canadian prime minister has formally apologized for the physical and sexual abuse that occurred in the now-defunct network of federally financed, church-run residential schools.

In the first formal apology ever delivered by a Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper stood in the House of Commons on Wednesday to say sorry to former students of the government’s native residential school program.

“Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools,” Harper said in Ottawa, surrounded by a small group of aboriginal leaders and former students, some of whom wept as he spoke.

“The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history.

“Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country,” he said to applause.

“The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language,” Harper said.

“While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences at residential schools, these stories are far overshadowed by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children, and their separation from powerless families and communities.”

Walt Disney Co.’s ABC News is close to scrapping the current format of its daily “World News” Webcast, an online version of the evening news anchored by Charles Gibson, which the network trumpeted as a major step into its digital future when it launched two years ago.

ABC’s news-division president, David Westin, says the network is considering ways to reinvent the broadcast, including as a series of updates throughout the day.

Coldplay has been forced to postpone the start of its North American tour by two weeks because of unspecified “production delays which mean that the show simply won’t be ready” for its planned June 29 kickoff in Philadelphia.

The itinerary will now begin with a July 14-15 stand in Los Angeles; it was to close August 4 in Chicago but will instead wrap that day in Boston. Tickets for the scrapped dates will be valid for the new ones, but refunds are also available at points of purchase. An updated itinerary is posted on the band’s Web site (http://www.coldplay.com).

Coldplay’s previously announced free shows in London (June 16), Barcelona (June 17) and New York (June 23) will go on as planned, as will a July 27 show at the first Pemberton Festival in British Columbia.