Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Dee Lohan (pronounced ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, model, and pop singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine advertisements and television commercials. At 11, she made her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.

Lohan rose to stardom between 2003 and 2005 with leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded. She subsequently appeared in independent movies like Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Bobby. Her career was interrupted in 2007 as two DUI incidents and three visits to rehabilitation facilities led to several lost movie deals. She guest starred in the TV series Ugly Betty in 2008 and filmed Robert Rodriguez's Machete in 2009.

Lohan launched a second career in pop music in 2004 with the album Speak and followed up with A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005. She is a favorite target of paparazzi photographers and her personal life has been a frequent subject of celebrity and tabloid journalism.

Acting career

Early success

Lohan began her career with Ford Models at age three, but found little work as a fashion model. She persisted and eventually appeared in more than 100 print-ads for companies like Toys "R" Us and fashion brands like Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie Kids. Lohan's first auditions for television work did not go well; by the time she tried out for a Duncan Hines commercial, she told her mother that she would give up if she did not get the job. She was hired, and went on to appear in over 60 commercials, including a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. Her ad work led to roles in soap operas, and she was already considered a show-business veteran in 1996 when she landed the role of Alexandra "Alli" Fowler on Another World, "where she delivered more dialogue than any other 10-year-old in daytime serials" of the time.

Lohan gave up Another World for the big screen when director Nancy Meyers cast her to play the dual roles of the estranged twin sisters who try to reunite their long-divorced parents (Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson) in the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. Trap was well-received for a family comedy, bringing in US$92 million worldwide. Film critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original, and ... she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities". Trap won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film.

She played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series, Bette (2000), but Lohan, then 14, quit when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles. She also starred in two Disney television movies, Life-Size with Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002.

Rise to fame

Following a brief hiatus, Lohan won a lead role in another Disney remake in 2003: Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis. At Lohan's initiative, her character was rewritten from a Goth to a more preppy style to be more relatable. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona," As of 2009, Friday was Lohan's biggest commercial and critical film success, earning US$160 million worldwide and receiving an 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2004 two films were released with Lohan in the lead. The first, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls", wrote Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo. It was a failure with critics. "Though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions," Robert K. Elder said. Far more successful was Mean Girls, Lohan's first movie outside of Disney. A critical and commercial hit, it ended up grossing US$129 million worldwide and, wrote Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen". "Lohan dazzles us once more," said Steve Rhodes. "The smartly written script is a perfect match for her intelligent brand of comedy." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for her work on Friday and Mean Girls, including breakout movie star. With Mean Girls Lohan's public profile was raised significantly and paparazzi began following her.

Lohan returned to Disney in 2005 for Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic car Herbie. Fully Loaded earned US$144 million worldwide and received mixed reviews. Lohan "is a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", wrote Stephen Holden. "As bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car", said James Berardinelli. Vanity Fair called Fully Loaded Lohan's "first disastrous shoot", describing how she was hospitalized with a kidney infection brought on by stress in her personal life and the effort of recording her first album during the shoot. The magazine also described how Lohan terminated the promotional tour and was de-emphasized on the movie poster due to "un-Disney-like behavior". Lohan's next film in wide release, the romantic comedy Just My Luck, opened in May 2006. According to Variety Lohan was paid over $7 million to star in the movie. The opening weekend box office of $5.7 million "broke lead actress Lindsay Lohan's winning streak", wrote Brandon Gray. The film received poor reviews and earned Lohan her first Golden Raspberry nomination for worst actress.

Independent movies

Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny'," wrote Peter Travers. The Emilio Estevez drama Bobby was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received some praise for her performance in the film, particularly a scene opposite Sharon Stone. She then appeared in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto) on the day he murders the singer. Filming finished in early 2006, but the film had trouble finding a distributor for the United States and received a very limited release in March 2008. On May 11, 2007, the drama Georgia Rule, in which Lohan starred alongside Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda, was released. "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism," wrote Owen Gleiberman. The year before James G. Robinson, CEO of the film's production company, criticized Lohan's work ethic?how her all night partying caused her to be repeatedly absent from the set.

Career interruptions

In early January 2007 production on I Know Who Killed Me was put on hold when Lohan underwent appendix surgery. Later in the month she entered a drug rehabilitation facility. She continued shooting the film, returning to the facility at night. Shortly thereafter, Lohan withdrew from a film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance, her publicist stating that Lohan needed to "focus on getting better". Lohan was replaced in The Edge of Love in late April 2007, just before filming was to begin, with the director citing "insurance reasons" and Lohan later explaining that she "was going through a really bad time then." Lohan was then cast in the film adaptation of Poor Things. On May 26, four days before production was set to start, she was arrested on a DUI offense and subsequently entered rehab. The film's producers initially voiced support and production was put on hold. On July 24, Three weeks before filming was set to start again Lohan was arrested for a second DUI and went to rehab yet another time. Ultimately she fell out of the project.

In the wake of Lohan's second DUI arrest on July 24, 2007, she withdrew from a scheduled appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote I Know Who Killed Me, a low-budget thriller-mystery in which she stars as a stripper with a dual personality. The film premiered to what Entertainment Weekly called "an abysmal $3.5 million". It earned Lohan two Golden Raspberry Awards for worst actress. She came in first and second, tying with herself.

Hollywood executives and industry insiders commented that it would be difficult for Lohan to find employment until she could prove that she was sober and reliable. They mentioned possible issues with securing insurance, a crucial part of any movie production. Robinson, the producer who previously critized Lohan's work ethic on Georgia Rule, said that he would work with her again if she got the proper medical care, and went on to describe her as "one of the most talented young women in the movie business today."

Continued career

In May 2008, Lohan appeared on ABC's Ugly Betty television series, her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me. Subsequently guest starring in a total of four episodes, spanning seasons two and three in 2008, Lohan played Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of America Ferrera's character Betty Suarez. In the 2009 film Labor Pains Lohan plays a young woman who pretends to be pregnant to avoid being fired. Her manager worked with the paparazzi during the shooting to encourage the media to show Lohan working, as opposed to partying. It was originally planned for a theatrical release, but instead appeared as a TV movie on the ABC Family cable channel in July 2009 and was released on DVD a month later.

Lohan is set to appear in three films slated for release in 2010: Robert Rodriguez's Machete, which she was shooting in August and September 2009; The Other Side, for which Lohan has landed the lead role; and Dare to Love Me.

Music career

Lohan in 2002

Aiming to become a triple threat?actor, singer and dancer?similar to Ann-Margret and Marilyn Monroe, Lohan began showcasing her singing talent through her films. For the Freaky Friday soundtrack, she sang the closing theme, "Ultimate"; she also recorded four songs for the Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen soundtrack. Producer Emilio Estefan, Jr. signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in 2002. Two years later, Lohan signed a recording contract with Casablanca Records, headed by Tommy Mottola.

Her debut album, Speak, was released in December 2004, and peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. By early 2005, it was certified Platinum. Though primarily a pop album, Speak was introduced with the single "Rumors", described by Rolling Stone as "a bass-heavy, angry club anthem". Its sexually suggestive video reached number one on MTV's Total Request Live and was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. "Rumors" eventually earned a Gold certification in America. The album spawned the second single "Over" and the third single "First", which was featured in Lohan's 2005 film Herbie: Fully Loaded.

In December 2005, her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, but fell under the top 100 within six weeks. Slant magazine called it "contrived ... but for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones." The album was certified Gold on January 18, 2006. The music video for the album's first single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)"?directed by Lohan and featuring the acting debut of her sister, Ali?was a dramatization of the pain Lohan says her family has suffered at the hands of her father. It was Lohan's first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #57.

Following a switch to Universal Motown, Lohan began working on a third album in late 2007 and in May 2008 the song "Bossy" was released. In November 2008 she stated that work on the album had stalled and that she wanted to avoid the stress of working on movies and music at the same time.

Other work

Appearances

In 2004, at age 17, Lohan became the youngest ever host of the MTV Movie Awards. Following Mean Girls, which was scripted by Tina Fey and featured several alumni of Saturday Night Live, Lohan was asked to host the show three times, in 2004, 2005 and 2006, when she also hosted the World Music Awards. She was a guest judge on US TV style contest Project Runway sixth season premiere episode, which aired in August 2009.

In 2005 Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the direct-to-DVD My Scene Goes Hollywood film based on the series of dolls. Lohan makes a cameo in the drug themed music video for the May 2008 N*E*R*D song "Everyone Nose". In April 2009, following her break up with Samantha Ronson, Lohan appeared in a skit on the comedy website Funny or Die. The self-deprecating video is a spoof of the personal ads on dating website eHarmony. It was viewed 2.7 million times in the first week and received favorable comments from the media.

Modelling and fashion

Lohan was voted #10 on the list of "100 Sexiest Women" by readers of FHM in 2005. Maxim placed her at #3 on its 2006 Hot 100 list. In 2007, Lohan placed at #1 on the Maxim "Hot 100". Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and Dooney and Bourke, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap UK fashion campaign. Lohan was also the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring/Summer 2009 campaign.

Lohan has a long-lasting admiration for Marilyn Monroe going back to when she saw Niagara during the The Parent Trap shoot. In the February 25, 2008 Spring Fashion edition of New York, Lohan re-created Monroe's final photo shoot, known as The Last Sitting, including nudity. Though her mother said doing the photo shoot was an "honor", The New York Times critic Ginia Bellafante found it "macabre": "the pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia. ... she appears dramatic ... none of Monroe?s fragility"

In 2008 Lohan launched a leggings line, whose name 6126 was designed to represent Monroe's birth date (June 1, 1926). In April 2009 she released a self-tanning spray under the brand name Sevin Nyne in collaboration with Sephora. In September 2009 it was announced that Lohan will be an artistic adviser for the French fashion house Emanuel Ungaro.

Personal life

Family background and education

Lohan was born on July 2, 1986 in New York City and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island in New York. She is the eldest child of Donata "Dina" (n?e Sullivan) and Michael Lohan. Lohan has three younger siblings, all of whom were child models: Michael Jr., who appeared with her in The Parent Trap, sister Aliana ("Ali"), who is also an actress, and Dakota ("Cody"), the youngest Lohan child. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic. Her maternal family were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" in Merrick, with her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, being a co-founder of the Pro-life Party in Long Island. Lohan attended public school on Long Island and was a cheerleader. She went to high school until grade 11 when she started homeschooling.

Lohan's parents have a turbulent history. They married in 1985, separated when she was three, and later reunited. Her father has been in trouble with the law repeatedly. He was a Wall Street trader and in the late 1980s he served a four year sentence for stock fraud. He went to jail in 1998 for a probation violation, and in 2000 after violating an order of protection to prevent him from seeing his children. In December 2005, Michael and Dina Lohan signed a separation agreement. According to Vanity Fair, Dina Lohan accused Michael of threats and domestic abuse in the legal papers. Michael Lohan in turn insinuated through the media that Dina had been drinking and doing drugs, possibly together with Lindsay. In 2007, Lohan's parents announced that their divorce proceedings had been finalized.

Lohan spoke in 2007 about her childhood: "I feel like a second parent in the sense that I helped raise my family." ... "I was put between my mother and father a lot. Well, I would put myself between them to try and keep the peace, and I felt good doing that." Despite the conflicts, Lohan calls herself "a family girl" and has spoken very fondly of her family, including her father. However, in 2007 and again in 2008 she stated that she was no longer in contact with him, describing his unpredictable behavior as hard to deal with.

Lohan has suffered from asthma since the age of two, but despite this she is a smoker as of 2008. Following Mean Girls in 2004 Lohan spent several years living out of hotels in Los Angeles, two of those years at Chateau Marmont. In fall 2007, after settling down in more permanent residency, she explained that she spent so much time in hotels because she "didn't want to be alone" but that "it wasn't a way of life ... not very consistent."

Car accidents, DUIs and rehabilitation

Lohan has had a series of car accidents that have been widely reported, with minor crashes in August 2004, October 2005, and November 2006, when Lohan suffered minor injuries because a paparazzo who was following her for a photograph hit her car. Police called the crash intentional, but prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to file criminal charges. Lohan is well known on the celebrity party scene. In 2006, Lohan attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

On January 18, 2007, Lohan checked herself in to the Wonderland Center rehabilitation facility. Through her representative, she issued a statement saying, "I have made a proactive decision to take care of my personal health". Lohan checked out on February 16, 2007 after completing a 30-day stay. On May 26, 2007, Lohan lost control of her car and ran the vehicle up a curb. Beverly Hills police also found a "usable" amount of cocaine in her car. After receiving treatment for minor injuries, Lohan was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol. Two days later, Lohan entered the Promises Treatment Centers rehabilitation facility, where she stayed for 45 days.

On July 24, 2007, Lohan failed a field sobriety test in Santa Monica and was taken to a police station where her blood alcohol level was found to be above the legal limit. While conducting a search, the police found a small amount of cocaine in her pocket. Lohan was booked on a felony charge of possession of cocaine and misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. In August 2007 Lohan entered Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Sundance, Utah for a third stint at rehabilitation, staying until discharge on October 5, 2007.

On August 23, 2007, Lohan pleaded guilty to cocaine use and driving under the influence and was sentenced to one day in jail and 10 days community service. She was also ordered to pay fines and complete an alcohol education program, and was placed on three years probation. ?It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs,? Lohan said in a statement. On November 15, 2007, Lohan served only 84 minutes in jail. A sheriff spokesman cited overcrowding and the nonviolent nature of the crime as reasons for the reduced sentence. The probation was extended with an additional year in October 2009, following several instances of Lohan failing to attend the court ordered substance abuse treatment classes.

Political positions

In 2004, Lohan stated that she did not like to talk about politics because she did not want to risk alienating any part of her fanbase. However, in 2006 she expressed an interest in going to Iraq on a USO tour with Hillary Clinton. During the 2008 US presidential campaign, she offered her services to Barack Obama's election effort, including hosting events aimed at young voters; but her offer was declined. An unnamed source within the Obama campaign told the Chicago Sun-Times that Lohan was "not exactly the kind of high-profile star who would be a positive for us." She nonetheless posted MySpace blogs with her opinions on the election, urging voters to support Obama, criticizing media coverage of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, and describing Palin as homophobic, anti-abortion and anti-environmentalist.

Relationships

Lohan began dating singer Aaron Carter in 2001. It was reported that Carter left Hilary Duff for Lohan, but soon broke up with Lohan and resumed dating Duff. On March 23, 2007, Claymation facsimiles of Lohan and Duff appeared on the celebrity wrestling series Celebrity Death Match episode "Where's Lohan?". Duff and Lohan were later reported to have been involved in a feud with each other over their relationship with Carter. In 2007, Duff and Lohan had reconciled. Lohan attended the release party for Duff's album Dignity and Duff told People magazine that she thought Lohan was "fun" and "a nice girl". Lohan started dating Wilmer Valderrama in 2003, though the couple were not seen together until May 2004 and didn't go public with their romance until Lohan's 18th birthday bash at the Hollywood nightclub Avalon two months later; the couple broke up in late 2004. Lohan has also dated Pink Taco restaurant owner Harry Morton and British TV personality Calum Best. While seeking treatment at the Cirque Lodge in Utah, Lohan met and began dating Riley Giles; however, in late November 2007, it was announced that they had split up. Lohan's mother, Dina Lohan said, " took desperate measures to hurt Lindsay because she broke up with him".

In 2008 Lohan and Samantha Ronson were regularly seen being affectionate in public, and in July several newspapers described their relationship as romantic. In September Lohan wrote in an e-mail to the New York Post about Ronson: "I care for her very much and she's a wonderful girl ... She loves me, as I do her." In the December 2008 issue of Harper's Bazaar she said "I think it's pretty obvious who I'm seeing ... I think it's no shock to anyone that it's been going on for quite some time." While speaking about her sexual orientation, Lohan said she was not a lesbian, but when asked if she was bisexual, she responded "Maybe. Yeah." She then added, "I don't want to classify myself." Lohan said her family, with the exception of her father Michael, had been supportive of her relationship with Ronson. The couple broke up in early April 2009. Lohan was interviewed about the break up in Us Weekly.

Filmography

Films
Year
Film
Role
Notes
1998
The Parent Trap
Hallie Parker / Annie James
Main Role
2000
Life-Size
Casey Stuart
Main Role (Made For Television)
2002
Get a Clue
Lexy Gold
Main Role (Made For Television)
2003
Freaky Friday
Anna Coleman
Main Role
2004
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Mary Elizabeth "Lola" Cep
Main Role
Mean Girls
Cady Heron
Main Role
2005
Herbie: Fully Loaded
Maggie Peyton
Main Role
2006
Just My Luck
Ashley Albright
Main Role
A Prairie Home Companion
Lola Johnson
Supporting Role
Bobby
Diane Howser
Supporting Role
2007
Chapter 27
Jude Hanson
Supporting Role
Georgia Rule
Rachel Wilcox
Main Role
I Know Who Killed Me
Aubrey Flemming / Dakota Moss
Main Role
2009
Labor Pains
Thea Clayhill
Main Role (Made For Television)
2010
The Other Side
Max Mackenzie
Main Role (Pre-production)
Machete
April
Supporting Role (Filming)
Dare To Love Me
La Ritana
Main Role
Television
Year
Title
Role
Notes
1996
Another World
Alli Fowler
Soap opera
2000
Bette
Rose Midler
Sitcom
2004
King of the Hill
Jenny Medina
Animated cartoon series
2005
That '70s Show
Danielle
Sitcom
2008
Ugly Betty
Kimmie Keegan
Comedy-Drama
2009
Project Runway
Guest Judge
Reality TV Fashion Show