If it was a performance, it deserved at least a nomination. Instead, it earned her one of the worst pans of her life.
Staring down a terrifying stint in a cramped Los Angeles County jail cell, Lindsay Lohan broke into tears Tuesday as she pleaded with a Beverly Hills judge for understanding.
“I did everything I was told to do, I thought I was being compliant,” Lohan, 24, cried as she tried to explain that she didn’t knowingly violate her probation in a DUI case by missing weekly alcohol-education classes. “I’m not taking this as a joke, it’s my life and career. I don’t want you to think I don’t respect you and your terms.”
In the audience section, her father Michael Lohan – himself no stranger to courtrooms due to his own battles with the bottle – also wept, as did Lindsay’s 16-year-old sister Ali.
In the end, the tears and tissues and smeared mascara held no sway. Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel sentenced Lohan to 90 days in jail and ordered the troubled actress to spend another three months in rehab within two days after she’s sprung from jail.
“I couldn’t have been more clear [about my orders],” Revel said. “There are no excuses.”
Lohan was ordered to surrender to the court on July 20 to begin her sentence, probably at the women’s Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, Calif., where she previously served just 84 minutes of a 24-hour sentence nearly three years ago.
Upon her release from rehab, Lohan will still be forbidden from consuming alcohol until the remainder of her probation term which ends in August 2011.
Despite her three-month sentence, Lohan may only end up serving a fraction of the term due to the L.A. Sheriff’s long-standing policy of releasing non-violent offenders early due to severe jail overcrowding. It’s unclear if the judge will forbid an early release.
Lohan had been treading on thin ice with the court since October, when Judge Revel sternly warned the actress not to create any more mishaps in her case otherwise she’d face jail time.
Since then, Lohan pulled a no-show at a mandatory progress review hearing in May, claiming her passport was stolen while at the Cannes Film Festival. She was fitted with a SCRAM alcohol-monitoring bracelet as a result and has been subject to random drug testing.
Two weeks later, the SCRAM bracelet was set off, leading to Lohan’s third arrest warrant in the case, although her attorney later claimed she tested negative for alcohol.