Why we can't help but root for Lindsay Lohan

The name ‘Lindsay Lohan’ has been synonymous with popular culture ever since the release of her cult 2004 movie Mean Girls. Before then, we all knew Lindsay as ‘that kid’ from The Parent Trap. Or if you were as slow as I was, ‘one of the twins’ from The Parent Trap. Moving on…

The unavoidably lovable actress managed to do what countless other child stars have tried and failed to accomplish over the years. Within the space of a single film, she transitioned from that-cute-kid-in-films to a fully-fledged adult actress. She scored another box office hit with Freaky Friday, and received critical acclaim for her more serious roles in Bobby and A Prairie Home Companion.

She even did a car advert… in Japan.

There was also that music career. I’m not ashamed to say I’ve still got her 2004 debut single Rumors on my iPod. With recent reports suggesting Li.Lo may be heading back into the recording studio, it might be time to dust off that copy of her album Speak you’re pretending you didn’t buy.

Sadly, like Jessie J generally, it all started to go a bit wrong. She partied hard, abused drugs and alcohol, and began to be associated with the likes of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. But while the media’s interest in that sorry pair has faded, Lindsay has stayed front and centre because, in our hearts, we know she has some genuine talent. She might not be the next Meryl Streep, but she could maybe be a kind of Instagram-era Marilyn. Both have undeniable on-screen charisma, and have attracted a huge level of media attention for their lives off screen.

And one thing you can’t fault is Lindsay’s support of the gay community, something she’s been vocal about many times. She posed for the NOH8 campaign in 2011, and while guest-presenting US chatshow Chelsea Lately last year, Lindsay remarked drily: “I’ve pissed off a lot of people in my time. Never gays. I’m smart like that.”

The actress-cum-singer even had a relationship with Mark Ronson’s sister, Samantha, though sadly it all ended in tears with a much publicised break-up in 2010.

Since then, there have been several stints in (groan) rehab – though the latest one may just have worked. In a recent interview, Oprah Winfrey asked Linsday if she was still abusing drugs, to which she famously replied: “Just vitamins.”

On top of rehab, Lindsay has had a number of run-ins with the police – and famously spent just 14 days in jail after receiving a three-month prison sentence for violating the terms of her probation in 2010. Even then, she managed to look continually fabulous. Amazingly, before her last rehab stint, she Instagrammed a picture of herself packing with the caption: “90 days, 270 looks.” You’ve got to give credit where credit is due: girl can save face.

After a string of attempted comebacks, none more disastrous than her role in 2007’s I Know Who Killed Me, in which she played woman who is almost brutally murdered, only to wake up from a coma thinking she’s a stripper named Aubrey, Lindsay has yet to claw her way back to superstardom.

But in the last year, the groundwork has been laid for the kind comeback proper we’ve all spent the best part of a decade waiting for, with a successful reality show on Oprah’s US cable network OWN and an incident-free turn on the West End stage in David Mamet’s Speed the Plow, which proved she could still keep an audience captivated. Having finally got off probation after seven years back in May, there’s nothing holding Li-Lo back from that “clean slate, fresh start” she’s long promised.

And I have a theory: we’ll be seeing Lindsay back where she belongs soon enough. Why? Well, I like to think her career is kind of a mirror of Mean Girls. At the beginning of the film, her character Cady is innocent, much like the star’s many Disney film roles. Cady then begins to go off the rails, and for a second, it looks like we might not get her back, much like Lindsay’s countless rehab stints.

But lastly, and most importantly, Cady finds her way again. Lindsay’s career just needs that fated yellow bus to knock it back to where it should be.

It’s time to make fetch happen. You can do it, Lindsay.

Why we can’t help but root for Lindsay Lohan

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