Kate Hackett
With the release of Framing Britney Spears, fans have been revisiting how the stars of the early aughts were treated, including Lindsay Lohan.
In 2013, Lohan visited Letterman during the promotional tour for her movie Scary Movie 5. Letterman, however, talked about almost everything except the film.
Clips from the episode have been posted to TikTok. They show Letterman questioning Lohan about rehab and shoplifting; Lohan is visibly uncomfortable.
He starts by telling jokes that he had previously made at her expense. She takes it in stride, laughing it off.
“Lindsay Lohan was on the TODAY show this morning. The appearance went well, only one camera is missing. Do you routinely go around grabbing stuff?” Letterman asked.
He then asked her about an upcoming visit to a treatment center; he asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be in rehab right now?”
He continued to push, asking “what exactly are they supposed to be rehabbing?”
Lohan was clearly uncomfortable at this point, but continued to play ball with Letterman. She said, “To be honest, I’m the happiest when I’m working and the healthiest — and I think this is an opportunity for me to, you know, focus on what I love in life. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a blessing.”
Letterman pressed on, asking if she believed she had addiction problems, specifically to alcohol.
“Now you sound like Dr. Phil,” Lohan clapped back, “We’ve talked about this before.”
She continued to try to get the interview on track and asked Letterman to look for the positive. Letterman instead offered to read the list of things she has recently “endured”.
Lohan grabbed Letterman’s notes and started to read them herself.
“Are you okay now? It feels like people should be helping you. Do you have money saved? Therapy? Do you ever ask yourself why am I always in trouble?” she read.
At length, Letterman finally moved the interview toward the future and told Lohan about things he learned during his own trip to rehab.
He finished the interview by offering praise for coming on the show, despite everything she had recently endured.
“You’re a good sport. I mean, we never thought we’d never see you again honestly, you know, because of the jokes and stuff. But yet, you have enough spine, enough sense of yourself, enough poise to come out here and talk to me.”
The pair only spent three minutes talking about Lohan’s film. Letterman’s interaction with her the rest of the time was not okay and did not sit well with TikTok.
Madison Beer wrote in the comments, “This is wrong on so many levels.”
Another commenter said, “It’s actually not funny that he’s making fun of someone who has a substance abuse problem. The network should not have been okay with this.”
The full interview is below:
