Is Lindsay Lohan the Next Robert Downey Jr.?

Sure—if Lohan's passport-arrest-warrant mess turns out as well as Iron Man star's flame-out in the desert

By Joal Ryan May 21, 2010 6:50 PMTags
Lindsay Lohan Flynetonline.com

A troubled star in more trouble due to an unlucky turn of events.

Lindsay Lohan this week in Cannes? Robert Downey Jr. nearly 10 years ago in Palm Springs.

Lohan should only be as lucky as Downey.

When a phone call from a 911 tipster led police to Downey's hotel room in the Southern California desert in November 2000, the subsequent drug bust was the thing that finally set the actor on the path to sobriety and career revival.  

Almost.

It actually took one more arrest—about five months later—before Downey closed the book on five years of having the book thrown at him.

But were it not for that single, anonymous phone call back in 2000, would Downey have ever gotten out of the place where Less Than Zero ended? Were it not for that apparent bad break, would Downey have ever been a good fit for Iron Man?

And now it's Lohan's turn. We get she isn't as celebrated as Downey was or is. But The Parent Trap, Mean Girls and even Georgia Rules are not myths, she has talent. And as tiring as it is to read about her tabloid travails, we imagine it's more exhausting living them. So, we should all be so lucky for her to become the next Downey.

Will her passport mishap turned arrest-warrant mess be the thing (or next-to-last thing) that sets her on that path? Will she celebrate as a turning point the day she lost her passport—or had it stolen by one of her father's minions, as the actress alleged (and her father denied) Thursday—risked jail time and incurred further bad press?

If she gets lucky.

(Originally published May 21, 2010, at 8:45 a.m. PT)

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