Notorious actress and headline creator Lindsay Lohan finished her sixth stint in rehab in July 2013, and in a bid to get the exclusive interview with the star, Oprah had to agree to give her this reality show. Called “Lindsay“, the eight-week long reality show, on Oprah’s OWN television channel, followed her as she worked to get clean and get her life back on track.
The first episode of the show followed Lindsay as she tried to make a new start in New York, but it wasn’t the car crash television some were hoping for. Instead, she talked a lot about keeping herself isolated from the “craziness” that surrounds her, about being “in the right place” and “making the right decisions”.
Still, some cracks did begin to show in her new, peaceful exterior. A tiny tantrum erupted when her real estate agent revealed that, in order to move into her new flat, she would need to get renter’s liability insurance. “I can’t get it because of who I am,” she told the agent. She then had her assistants move her things into another room in her hotel, in the hopes that the chance of scenery would help lift her spirits. As the assistants worked hard moving all of her belongings, she complained to the camera that “I have to do everything myself.”
She then agreed to do a cameo in a short lingerie film, as she was friends with one of the producers. When they asked her to say a few lines, she started crying and pulled out of the film. She later said going through with the short film would have “compromised my sanity and my sobriety.”
Similarly, she insisted that moving to New York was key to her sobriety, saying “it’s comforting to be around my family. They’re a huge part of my recovery and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Presumably she doesn’t mean her father, who has made just as many headlines for his erratic and often illegal behaviour as she has at her worst.
Throughout it all, she and her people all seemed convinced that this time, the rehab would stick. She kept her recovery at the forefront of her mind, and that positive energy translated into thoughts on how she was learning to handle the pressure of her extreme celebrity without turning to drugs and alcohol. She also talked about how the appeal of alcohol has gone for her. “There’s nothing left in having a drink for me. What’s left in that feeling? Nothing,” she said. “There’s no party that I haven’t gone to, there’s no person that I haven’t hung out with. There’s no situation that I haven’t been exposed to.”
The show pointed out that much of this sensitivity and emotional fragility should be laid at the feet of the packs of paparazzi who document her every move. She even had to cancel an appointment at an AA meeting because the paparazzi would follow her, and that would be unfair for the others at the meeting. Given that Cliffside Malibu, the location of her latest rehab and one of the advertisers on the show, warned in their ad that “83% of rehab clients relapse within the first year”, this show could prove a bad decision on Lindsay’s part. After all, missing AA meetings, beign haunted by paparazzi, keeping her equally chaotic family nearby and having it all documented for the public’s entertainment can’t possibly be great for her sanity and sobriety.
Let’s hope for Linday’s sake that this show will have the ultimately uplifting and life-affirming ending we’ve come to expect from Oprah’s productions.
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