Lindsay Lohan: Well Behaved and Avoiding Scandals

It's hard to imagine Lindsay Lohan's life at this point. Although she just turned 19, the teen actress has been subjected to just about every kind of tabloid debacle known to man. If you believe the rumors, she's had extensive plastic surgery, she's been bulimic and overweight, slept with countless older stars, run through all kinds of controlled substances and had a bout with alcoholism.

"Good friends," "insiders," and "sources" have not hesitated to tell every story they "know" to Star, US Weekly and anyone who'll listen.

So I was naturally a little nervous when I ran into Lohan last night at the premiere of John Singleton's "Four Brothers." We'd only met one other time, at another premiere this year. Also, she was with her publicist Leslie Sloane Zelnick, whom I've known for years and always liked. But if you catch their passing appearances in these magazines, Lohan and Zelnick seem like they're careening out of spin control on a daily basis.

So there they are, accompanied by Lindsay's attractive young friend Amanda, who's still in high school. They were already in their seats at the Chelsea West movie theater. Lindsay, who's a red head, is sporting streaked blonde hair these days. Otherwise, she was quite normal looking, personable to a fault, and incredibly pleasant. It was very disappointing. I wanted a temper tantrum, a quick run to the bathroom for a snort, anything juicy! Alas, it was not to be.

"How are you getting through all of this?" I asked, keeping in mind that at least one, maybe two of her family members have been in jail lately or tried to cash in on her success.

"I'm trying to ignore it," she replied. "But I'm going to direct a video to a new song, and it's going to tell the whole story of the last year and a half."

Lindsay, as you may recall, has a sort of odd singing career that produced an album earlier this year. The new song, I think, is not from that album. The video, she said, excitedly, "is really a short film."

She just returned from Minneapolis, where she played Meryl Streep's daughter in Robert Altman's "Prairie Home Companion."

"When I got there I was nervous," she said, which I understood completely. She's a New Yorker. "There was nothing out there. Then I calmed down, and it was great." Altman does not suffer fools gladly, so he obviously saw something in Lohan of value as an actress. This was a relief to Lindsay, who is probably less well known for her acting skills right now than what dress she wore to which party.

"He did have Paul Thomas Anderson there," Lindsay said, of the "Magnolia" director. "He said, 'He's here in case I croak.' I said, 'Bob, please don't say things like that.'"

Anderson was indeed on set because Altman was under the weather at first. Luckily, nothing bad happened — and Anderson, whose "Magnolia" is like a gigantic Altman homage anyway — got a great tutorial.

So that's Lindsay Lohan, age 19. She's having quite an experience. If she can just live through it, she'll have quite a career.

SOURCE: web page