Despite short jail stint, Lohan won't be back soon

[July 21, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Lindsay Lohan's time in jail will be short, but her time away from the public eye will be much longer.

Sheriff's officials say the actress will spend only about two weeks of a 90-day sentence in jail. But her brief time in an isolation cell that has housed other celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Michelle Rodriguez is just one element of a sentence that is designed to punish and rehabilitate the star.

Once Lohan is released in early August, she will be required to report to probation officials within a day. She has also been ordered to spend three months at an inpatient rehab.

That portion of her sentence won't be trimmed like her jail stint by overcrowding and credits for good behavior.

"It's a straight 90 days," prosecutor Danette Meyers said Tuesday.

The result is that the "Mean Girls" and "Georgia Rules" star will be unavailable until late this year to start filming her portrayal of porn actress Linda Lovelace in a biopic. She will be equally unavailable to promote her role as a gun-toting nun in Robert Rodriguez's "Machete," which marks her return to the big screen in September.

It amounts to lost time for the once-promising actress, whose movements have been restricted since she missed a court date in May. It remains to be seen whether Lohan can replicate a post-jail rebound similar to Michelle Rodriguez, who had a prominent role in last year's blockbuster "Avatar" and appears in "Machete."

Lohan's acting career has floundered since 2007, the year she was arrested twice and charged with drunken driving and drug charges. Her plea deal kept her out of jail for all but 84 minutes, but she has struggled with the terms of her probation.

Most of her problems have involved attendance at a state-mandated alcohol education class. The revelation that she missed seven sessions since December, when a judge ordered her weekly participation, led to her return to jail and the new probation terms.

Ironically, Lohan's attorney filed proof with the court Tuesday that she had completed the program. Moments later the nervous-looking actress rose from her chair and was handcuffed by a bailiff.

She was led to a lockup cell as her estranged father yelled out a message of support, then whisked by car to the women's jail. Cameras documented every move, except for the actual handcuffing, which the judge barred photographers from shooting.

It was more time in front of the cameras for a woman who has been filmed since she was a child, but once again not in the role most people pay to see.

[Associated Press; By ANTHONY McCARTNEY]

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