Families loved Lindsay Lohan in 1998’s The Parent Trap, where she played plucky, freckle-faced twins trying to reunite their parents. The actress gained further popularity in the PG-rated Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and the mother-daughter body-swap flick Freaky Friday. Since then, however, Lohan has moved farther into questionable territory. Last year’s hit Mean Girls took on high school cliques but did so with enough profanity, sexual content and teen drinking to warrant the first PG-13 rating in the 18-year-old actress’s career. Since then she has recorded a pop CD and posed for racy photo layouts—part of an image makeover that’s forcing parents of young fans to draw the line.
It’s a depressing trend. A pretty girl produces some fairly positive material until she reaches a magical age when suddenly she feels the need to cast off the clean-cut image and become more “world-wise.” Britney Spears did it. So have Drew Barrymore, Christina Aguilera, Alyssa Milano, Jessica Biel and others. Now Lindsay Lohan has joined their inauspicious ranks.
“The once-wholesome child star ... does her best to get people talking with her Britney Spears hip-swivel and breast shake in the video for ‘Rumors,’ the first single off her album,” writes The Boston Herald’s Tenley Woodman. That article also notes that, if Lohan could swap bodies with anyone, she would choose Britney.
Like Spears, Lohan is overexposed in more ways than one. It was hard to walk past a newsstand during the past six months without seeing the auburn-haired actress staring back. To be sure, some of the images reflected the cute, innocuous star of days past. But others were more revealing. A Rolling Stone cover featured an ebullient young woman in a low-cut, cleavage-baring dress. Interior photos revealed a lingerie-clad sex kitten in a come-hither pose. Entertainment Weekly showed Lohan wearing nothing but sheer nylons, her arms strategically placed in a pose that paid homage to ’60s siren Ann-Margaret, whom Lohan names as a role model, along with Marilyn Monroe and Madonna.
Then there is the much-publicized partying. Granted, having celebutante Paris Hilton for a friend does not lend itself to many stay-home-and-read-a-book evenings, but no one is dragging Lohan out on those wild, dance-on-the-table nights on the town. She told one source that she restricts herself to nothing stronger than Red Bull in celebrity nightspots. Elsewhere she admitted to light drinking, stating, “Most of my friends are over 21, and if I have a sip or whatever it’s not a big deal. It’s not like ... I get wasted and all trashed.”
Following Lohan’s antics over the past year, one is left with conflicted feelings. She is either an incredibly naive teenager who has no idea of the snares she’s walking into, or she thinks she’s smarter than all who have gone before her and can ride the tiger without getting hurt. Maybe it’s a bit of both. What’s most maddening, though, is that a legion of young fans hangs on her every move. And those moves are being made without solid advice from loving adults.
In Need of Parental Guidance
When Drew Barrymore posed nude for Playboy in 1995, Steven Spielberg (her godfather and e.t. director) had artists superimpose clothing on her naked photos. He sent them to Drew with a note that read, “Cover yourself up.”
Although Lohan says Playboy isn’t an option “right now,” she could use a loving note, too. Yet there doesn’t seem to be a wise adult in her life who values her moral welfare more highly than the number of magazine covers she’s on. Instead, her parents are quick to make excuses. Her mom, Dina, has bragged about her daughter’s partying, noting, “I didn’t raise Lindsay to sit at home!” Her dad told People, “Any 18-year-old who has accomplished what Lindsay has would party 20 times as much.” The couple’s rocky 19-year marriage reportedly ended in divorce late last year.
It’s easy to sympathize with Lohan, who is trying to make the best of a difficult family situation. She and her mom are best friends. But in a scenario seemingly borrowed from Freaky Friday, it’s not always clear which one is the grown-up. Dina often club-hops with Lindsay, who admitted to Jane magazine, “I’m a second mom. I’m a mom to my mom.”
Meanwhile, her Wall Street-investor father served several years in prison in the early ’90s for securities fraud. His current legal troubles include restraining orders preventing him from seeing his children. As the oldest sibling, Lindsay has been the diplomat and protector of a sister and two brothers. Clearly, she’s not shirking all personal responsibility. She’s simply a ship sailing in a strong gale without a rudder.
Teens may be attracted to Lohan, in part, because she is genuinely down-to-earth and unimpressed by her own celebrity. After becoming instantly famous with the success of The Parent Trap, she returned to school and spent three years out of the spotlight. Today she freely pokes fun at herself. Her biggest fear? “That people will assume I think I’m better than other people just because I’m [a famous actress]. That’s not true at all.”
Charting a Perilous Course
Still, there’s no excuse for some of the decisions she’s making. She knows a lot of teens look up to her yet justifies playing the vamp and sexing up her image. She told CNN, “Girls my age dress so much raunchier than I’d ever imagine myself dressing. I understand that I’m a role model, though, and I have to look out for that. I have a 10-year-old sister, too. But you also want to be appealing to guys and stuff; that’s just something girls feel. It’s hard.”
One attempt to portray herself as an object of desire occurred on a recent episode of Saturday Night Live. Lohan made a cameo during libidinous bad-boy Colin Farrell’s monologue. After several nerdy cast members failed to win her with lame pickup lines, Farrell simply looked into her eyes, and she fell under his spell, saying breathlessly, “I’ll meet you in your dressing room.”
Although Lohan will star in a sequel to the 1968 Disney classic The Love Bug this summer, expect her choice of parts to change. She has expressed interest in meatier roles now going to peers such as Kirsten Dunst and Natalie Portman, and briefly considered portraying ’70s porn star Linda Lovelace in an upcoming biopic. She turned it down because she wants to ease into those roles more gradually—when she’s “mentally” in the right place. “When I’m ready, I will,” she promises.
Teen girls can learn a lot from Lohan’s choices. For one thing, overexposure and immodesty lead to disrespect. Already she’s suffering backlash, evidenced in a number of catty year-end media lists. For example, Ohio’s Columbus Dispatch named Lohan to its Top-10 Most Tiresome Celebs of 2004. Even Entertainment Weekly found time to dis her “acres of skin” look.
The low road may seem profitable for a season, but it’s unhealthy for stars and their fans. By comparison, God’s standard will yield eternal benefits. As our daughters scour the culture for role models, let’s point to the timeless wisdom of Proverbs 31: “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
Read the Plugged In review of Speak, Lindsay Lohan's latest album.
Families loved Lindsay Lohan in 1998’s The Parent Trap, where she played plucky, freckle-faced twins trying to reunite their parents. The actress gained further popularity in the PG-rated 
