The 3 Most Eye-Opening Moments of Oprah’s Lindsay Premiere

Four days after Lindsay Lohan was released from her sixth stint in rehab, Oprah Winfrey locked down the fallen starlet for a docu-series to air on the OWN network, which had its premiere last night. It kicks off with Lindsay in that sherbert-colored interview dress telling Oprah that her intention is to be a more authentic version of herself.

Even if I wasn’t unabashedly Team Lindsay (which I am), the series is every bit as fantastic as its early aughts-MTV era logo suggests (which in itself is everything that was great about The Hills mixed with everything that was great about True Life). Here are the three most eye opening moments from the season premiere:

1. Lindsay makes a personal choice prioritizing her health and sobriety; The Canyons director Paul Schrader throws her under the bus. Lindsay Lohan’s most recent film project was the Bret Easton Ellis-penned The Canyons, in which she co-starred opposite James Deen. Unfortunately, as promotional work for the film began, Lindsay was just wrapping up her latest adventures in rehab, and so she was unavailable to do press for the feature. Ultimately, even though GQ had offered to pay her travel expenses, Lindsay chose not to attend the Venice Film Festival for The Canyons’ premiere, because the GQ deal involved attending a GQ party. And being the freshly sober recovery newborn that she was, Lindsay responsibly figured that two weeks of Euro-boozing was not the best idea.

Cut to a clip of Paul sitting at a press conference for the festival: “For the last 16 months, I have been a hostage by my own choosing to a very talented but unpredictable actress. And she was supposed to be here today — she said she would be — but she’s not. And for that reason, I just want to take off the table any questions about Lindsay Lohan’s personal life.”

Yes, Paul Schrader. Lindsay Lohan’s addiction is about you being taken hostage. Of course, there are a number of sufferers when any one person is swallowed up by addiction, but could the man have done her any fewer favors in that press conference? She skipped the premiere specifically to avoid making a bigger spectacle of herself or the production. Sure, she was shirking some press responsibilities here, but from Lindsay’s perspective, it really seemed like the right thing to do for all involved.

2. Lindsay is forced to skip an AA meeting because of the paparazzi. Part of the Lindsay premiere is devoted to her struggles finding a New York City apartment, and in spite of living a staggering 36 days (and counting) out of a hotel, she can’t seem to speed up the process, because she’s imprisoned by the swarm of paparazzi constantly waiting for her outside the hotel. On one day when she’s feeling particularly vulnerable, she makes the decision to cancel all her plans because she feels she can’t face going outside and being pounced on by 40 photographers. The price of fame? Maybe. But it’s hard not to feel badly for her when she’s forced to skip her 6pm AA meeting because she’s afraid her paparazzi entourage will compromise the anonymity of the other attendees.

3. She pulls out of a shitty project she was only doing as a favor to a friend to begin with, lies about the reason why to be polite, fuels the perception of being a “difficult actress.” One of the gigs Lindsay is followed on for the series is a lingerie shoot in which Lindsay agrees to do a cameo as a favor to the filmmakers, who are friends of hers. The actual concept and content of the shoot turn out to be something different from what Lindsay had discussed or come to understand with the director; she doesn’t like the idea; so she pulls out. The director fumes and guilts her and insists that the Oprah cameras be turned off, but hold on a second.

She was doing this cameo as a favor. She thought the extent of the project would be a short film documenting the photo shoot itself. She subsequently found the dialogue and “scene” she was given to be weird and awkward. So she didn’t do it. That’s a seemingly legitimate and responsible choice for an actress to make. No one wants to perform in bad material they feel awkward doing.

Presumably to be polite to the director, she didn’t say “your idea is shitty.” Instead she told him that she wasn’t comfortable with the scene, and had no desire to be featured in the shoot as anything other than an actress, because she didn’t want to steal any of her sister’s spotlight as an aspiring model. “My sister is the model in the family,” she told him, and firmly stood her ground.

Obviously, from the perspective of anyone working on the shoot, Lindsay looks like she’s being difficult. But really, she didn’t want to compromise the integrity of her standards, acknowledged for herself that she had only taken the gig as “filler” to get on set again, and made it okay for herself to pull out.

In spite of how often Lindsay says that working helps to keep her focused and her vices at bay, she’s going to misstep in trying to navigate work and sobriety. It’s an inevitability. The trick is to surround herself with people who acknowledge that prioritizing her personal safety over being 100% reliable and professional all the time is okay.

Says Oprah to Lindsay in a trailer for the rest of the season, “If you’re not ready, I’m really okay with that.” One member of Team Lindsay down, an entourage to go.

Related links:
Lindsay Lohan Kills 8 People, Licks the Murder Weapon in New Spread
5 Things We Like About Lindsay Lohan’s New Fashion Blog
Lindsay Lohan Is ‘a Good Roommate,’ Sister Ali Says

Share and Enjoy