Hello, Lindsay Lohan!
The 29-year-old actress, who's been playing her cards fairly close to the vest for the past year while continuing to put the pieces of her career back together, just had a very chatty visit with The Sun in London, which was more than happy to serve as the spigot for a flood of information.
First of all, it sounds as though England suits the New York native who was for the most part chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine—through no small fault of her own, that is. Happily, several trips to rehab, jail and countless courtrooms later, Lohan is sounding healthy, happy and optimistic about what's to come in life.
So what better time for an epic gab session to set the scene for a comeback?! While certain keywords from Lohan's interview, such as "Harry Styles" and "Egor" [Tarabasov, her new 22-year-old Russian boyfriend], immediately stood out, we're still processing all of what the star had to share...
And while we're doing that, another word has popped into our minds: Empathy. Lohan's got it in spades, for fellow famous types such as the ones who are trying to avoid the pitfalls of young stardom (and not always being successful), as well as those who may actually deserve some criticism but who have become easy targets in her eyes.
"I was in London when I saw all the stories about Justin Bieber's troubles going on," she recalled to The Sun, giving a shout-out to the famously all-over-the-place pop star who finally seems to be getting it together at the old-in-showbiz-years age of 22. "My heart was like, 'Ooh, this is never fun, it's never easy.' It's just s--t. I was just like, 'Stop driving fast cars. Just don't do it.'
"Literally, don't," she added. "Drive a station wagon!"
Bieber was actually compared to Lohan, for awhile the poster girl for child stars gone wrong, enough so that he dashed out an Instagram diss in March 2013 calling upon those comparing the two to look at Lindsay's tax return. He quickly deleted and then apologized, admitting he was "wrong" to go there.
But it's Lohan's unfortunately wise-beyond-her-years experience being the object of so much ridicule and judgment that has contributed to her being so compassionate, she's even defending Donald Trump–even though he denied her a spot on Celebrity Apprentice back in the day.
"[The Lohans] approached me, and we did talk about it. It's just not the right time," Trump told Life & Style back in May 2011 (when she was fresh out of the Betty Ford Center and still enmeshed in legal troubles). "Lindsay has to straighten herself out first. And I know [mom] Dina, she's a really lovely woman. I don't think she gets very much credit—she's tried. I know [dad] Michael a little bit. It could happen in the future, but right now we need to see Lindsay get straightened out."
Of course, the other side of that story is that Dina Lohan told People in 2010 that Trump approached them about having Lindsay on the show and, while Dina thought that was a great idea, her daughter had two movies to shoot, so bad timing. (Machete worked out, but Lohan was replaced by Malin Akerman in the Linda Lovelace biopic Inferno; it was ultimately never made.)
Fast-forward to today and Lohan has nothing but sympathy for Trump—though she was a quick to add that she's a Hillary Clinton fan, even though she isn't planning to vote this year. (We object—Lindsay, get your absentee ballot, so long as you're allowed to vote.)
"I know Donald Trump, he is a nice person," she said. "He's a New Yorker and my mom knows him. My dad was a broker when he was younger, so I know that part of the world. I like Donald as a person...They are just making too much of a spectacle out of the election and they're being mean. People are too mean towards Trump." However, she also admitted she'd "be a little scared" if he won.
Let's see, what else do we know about Lohan's London life now...
According to her interview, she's besties with Rita Ora, saying she's "like a second sister" and calling their relationship "a nice friendship." Downton Abbey is one of her favorite shows. She wakes up at 9 a.m. She's meditating. She's mulling trying to become a British citizen, crediting London with helping her get her life back on track. She's been dating Egor for about seven months after meeting last summer. And she insists the toxic forces in her life have been vanquished.
One person she does have fond remembrances of from her so-called old life is Samantha Ronson, who was her constant companion in 2008 and 2009.
"Samantha Ronson was my best friend," Lohan said. "At that point I actually was kind of the first young person straight off the Disney train, so it was a big deal. My younger siblings didn't know what to make of it. More than anything, Samantha was a really good friend to me when I really needed one."
After a year and a half based in the U.K., Lindsay does seem to be leading a very different lifestyle than the one associated with her on U.S. shores.
In October 2014 she made her West End debut in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, she just shot the horror thriller The Shadow Within (her first movie in three years) and, better yet, she finished 125 hours of community service in the nick of time and was let off probation last May—meaning, she rang in the new year while not on probation for the first time in almost a decade. Moreover, she rang in 2016 during what looked like a very cleansing trip, literally, to Costa Rica.
She's had a few peccadilloes, mainly social media or photo-related, over the past year (and who hasn't?), but otherwise... It's been all quite on the level for the star, who's going to be 30 in July.
People may titter over a good scandal, but we have a feeling no one's actually rooting for Lindsay Lohan to fail. May she continue to thrive across the pond.