Lindsay Lohan, as you likely know, has been serving house arrest for the past month, having pleaded no contest to misdemeanor theft. She was charged with stealing a $2,500 necklace from a Venice jewelry store in January.
That means Lohan has been chilling at home with friends, Twitter and YouTube. It’s pretty much the same thing my son and teenagers across the Valley have been doing lately—only they call it summer vacation.
With any luck, I’ll be on “house arrest” soon too, though I’ve been referring to my much-anticipated break as a staycation. I’m looking forward to reading, gardening and cleaning out the garage.
Lohan has been making productive use of her down time, as well. From an overstuffed sofa in her $2.25-million beach pad, the actress shot a commercial for a controversial "penny auction" site called Beezid.com. The endorsement deal, which also involves her tweeting about Beezid, reportedly paid LiLo $25,000.
That was just one of the lucky breaks the problem-prone actress scored last week. She also avoided getting sent back to Lynwood County Jail after throwing a rooftop party and failing an alcohol test. While the judge reportedly said she exercised “extremely poor judgement,” she hadn’t violated her probation.
Barring any new missteps, Lohan will finally get to leave the house Wednesday, having completed her 35-day house arrest sentence. After that, she’ll resume her court-ordered community service at a Downtown Women's Center and the Los Angeles County morgue, according to an interview she gave Life & Style magazine while stuck at home.
And after that? Sadly, I think there's a fair chance she'll be back in trouble and/or court. Should that happen, I am most certain that Lohan's father will be ready with new sound bites for anyone with a microphone. (And my kids say I'm embarrassing).
Once known for her spunky girl-next-door charm, Lohan unfortunately has become yet another tragic Hollywood cliché of child stardom, indulgence and bad parenting.
Years ago, I got a peek at how this can happen. My son, then 4, was playing with some neighborhood boys at their house. The boys’ mom worked for a local Spanish-language TV station and had volunteered her sons and our block for a public service announcement about safety tips for Halloween. My son was invited to join them. He eagerly put on a Halloween costume, was given a sack of candy and a flashlight, and was filmed strolling up the street with his playmates.
By the third take he was bored and wanted to go home. At that point, he was in the shot and his leaving would mean everybody had to start over. I wound up bribing him with the candy. As I did, I realized how much bigger and frequent the bribes and concessions would become if instead of a quickie PSA this were a big-budget movie with dozens of other people’s careers on the line.
Now it’s only Lohan’s career, not to mention life, that’s on the line.
