Lindsay Lohan faces 90-days jail sentence
Judge Marsha Revel sentenced Lindsay Lohan to 90 days in county jail and 90 days in a substance abuse program for violating probation after learning that she missed seven court-ordered weekly alcohol counseling
sessions during the 27 week period between December 2009 and July 2.
“Are you serious?” she sobbed to her attorney as she furiously plucked Kleenex out of a tissue box and covered her face as she grappled with the prospect of jail.
Lohan had appealed to the judge directly for leniency, admitting that she was scared and told the court, “I did everything I was told to do,” she said. “I thought I was being compliant. I did the best that I could.
“I wasn’t asking for special treatment…I was just trying to balance my jobs. I don’t want you to think I don’t respect you or your terms.”
Lohan’s 90-day jail sentence caps a long history of legal issues reaching back at least to her 2007 DUI arrest and comes at a time when the 24-year-old actress is trying to piece her career back together. The jail time, which is to be followed by a 90-day in-house stay at a substance abuse clinic, will prevent Lohan from publicizing an upcoming movie and delay production on another one. What’s more, Lohan will be unable to continue promoting her new fashion line, 6126, which is expected to begin shipping to stores this month.
So just how much will Lohan’s professional life suffer now that her ability to jumpstart new projects and promote existing ones has been compromised? Will the actress—once a rising star with box-office hits like “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls”—survive her current woes and make a Hollywood comeback?
“The simple stroke is that she already destroyed her movie career,” said David Poland of MovieCityNews.com. “Is she insurable on a film right now? Probably not. What was a bad reputation has turned into a legally defined problem.”
To wit, Lohan has already lost at least one job because of her public notoriety, having been fired from “The Other Side” in April. Writer/director David Michaels explained it this way at the time: “The producers of the movie have reported that financiers have been resistant to finance the movie with Lindsay in the lead role,” adding that Lohan was simply “not bankable.”
Still, the director of “Inferno,” a biopic in which Lohan is set to star as 1970s porn star Linda Lovelace, has came out in support of the embattled actress. “I am 100 percent behind Lindsay and can say the same for everyone involved in the production of ‘Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story,’ ” Matthew Wilder told MTV News in a statement after her jail sentence was announced on Tuesday. “Indeed, we are proud to have this remarkable artist work on our film.”
Other producers shared the sentiment. The Associated Press reported that Lohan is in negotiations for a part in the upcoming Willie Nelson movie “The Dry Gulch Kid,” and that production would be postponed if she wanted the role. “We’re behind her,” producer Kerry Wallum said. “We’ll wait until all of this blows over.”
How long will that take? And will Lohan be able to step back into the limelight? That depends on how she handles herself, both in private and in public, in the weeks and months ahead, according to one Hollywood PR vet.
“She can take this and she can learn from it and it becomes a cathartic event in her life,” said Howard Bragman, founder of publicity firm Fifteen Minutes. “The one thing we haven’t heard from Lindsay is, ‘I’m sorry, I have a problem, I’m going to resolve it.’ She doesn’t have PR problems, she has life problems. You can’t fix your problems until you admit you have them. I think she needs a lot of therapy. She needs to let her career be second and her life be first.”
Before she can get her life back, though, Lohan is headed to prison, and Bragman maintained that if she deals with it appropriately, she has a shot at resurrecting her career.
