SALON

Thursday, Jan 10, 2013 4:16 PM UTC

Lindsay Lohan profile proves the value — and rarity — of access

The troubled star's habits are public, but Sunday's New York Times Magazine gives a rare glimpse into her psyche

By

Topics: paul schrader, Hollywood, entertainment news, lilo, Lindsay Lohan, Movies, Film, Media Criticism, New York Times, New York Times Magazine, stephen rodrick,

Lindsay Lohan profile proves the value — and rarity — of access (Credit: AP/John Shearer)

It’s pretty rare to learn anything about a celebrity from a celebrity story. Glossy magazines, settling for less and less access, read volumes into what the starlet of the moment ate for lunch, but never seem to catch the stars off-guard. At the moment when appetite for celebrity gossip has never been more ravenous, celebrities themselves have been trained within an inch of their lives (everyone’s always the happiest they’ve ever been), and publicists know to limit the conversations just to lunch.

So it’s a surprise of sorts that Lindsay Lohan — who has been burned by her own volubility in print before, after admitting to drug use, then recanting it — was followed through July for the New York Times Magazine, in a lengthy story about the set of her upcoming film, “The Canyons,” a tiny, Kickstarter-funded independent film directed by Paul Schrader.

Here are the most surprising revelations about an actress whose habits are public but whose inner self is usually obscure:

  • Though she doesn’t often speak to the mainstream press anymore, Lohan is voluble, responding to the director’s observation that rejection is formative with: “Well, it’s nothing like going to jail, I can tell you that.”
  • Lohan appeared late at the first read-through, with a marked-up script in hand, in which she had scratched out the names of her co-stars Nolan Funk and James Deen, and scrawled in the names of three or four actors as possible replacements.
  • She changes her mind frequently, saying at the beginning of the shoot that she hopes to flee to Uganda but by the end that she hopes to revive her career with more work.
  • After getting fired from “The Canyons” (she was later rehired), she banged on Schrader’s hotel room door and wept for 90 minutes.
  • Offered a chauffeured car to lunch so she wouldn’t go too far and hold up production, Lohan and her entourage orchestrated a “jailbreak” of sorts, fleeing the car. Her lunch privileges were thus revoked, though she ruined a morning of filming after spending a night partying with Lady Gaga.
  • She attempted to take over directing scenes by describing her ideal motivations, and told costar James Deen he was “disrespectful” to Schrader.

Granted, many of these revelations come from people other than Lohan — it would appear that Lohan irritated her co-workers on set so badly that they vented to reporter Stephen Rodrick as an outlet, proving the value of a month’s worth of access. After all, when confronted with a direct question about the emotional troubles causing her to act out, Lohan reverts back into her own version of the in-control, guarded celebrity brushing off the journalist: “I can’t cry. I’ve got makeup on.”

Daniel D'Addario is a staff reporter for Salon's entertainment section. Follow him on Twitter @DPD_ More Daniel D'Addario.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 16 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
269 points270 points | 56 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
253 points254 points | 10 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
195 points196 points | 1 comment
vote
Today in How Did I Miss This: Iowa GOP is pushing to cut the pay of the remaining Supreme Court Justices that voted for legalization of gay marriage.
77 points78 points | 8 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
57 points58 points | 8 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations