Judge Tells Lindsay's Parents to Shut Up

Mon., Jul. 30, 2007 7:06 PM PDT by Natalie Finn

It's all well and good that Michael Lohan is trying to return to the fold. But his reentry won't come cheap.

So says the New York judge who on Friday ordered Lindsay Lohan's estranged dad to get a job and start forking over $500 per week in child support to ex-wife Dina and their two younger children.

Aliana, 13, and Dakota, 11—and Lindsay, 21, for that matter—haven't seen their father since his release from prison in March after serving 25 months for attempted assault, drunken driving and driving without a license.

Michael has been living in a faith-based drug treatment center in West Babylon, Newsday reports, and he told the court that he plans to open his own rehab and crisis center at a Southampton church on Sept. 4.

"I'm going to start making a living again," he said Monday after another scheduled appearance in Nassau County Family Court in Westbury.

The financial issues having been addressed, Judge Stacy Bennett reordered Michael and Dina to quit picking on each other both in public and in front of their kids, reiterating what she told them last month when she ordered the former spouses, who also have a son, into family therapy and said that Michael should get more phone time with the kids.

A court-ordered evaluation regarding Michael's visitation privileges is due on Judge Bennett's desk by Sept. 6.

Perhaps figuring that he and Dina have more pertinent parental matters to be concerned about, Michael also dropped his motion requesting that the court make his ex submit to drug testing.

But although Michael says that he is now committed to being there for his family, in particular his eldest daughter, both Dina and Lohan have orders of protection in place that prevent him from seeing any of his children.

"I've been trying and trying to speak to her," he told reporters after court Monday. "She's suffering from exactly the same thing I've been suffering.

After Lohan was busted last Tuesday morning on suspicion of DUI and cocaine possession, Michael told E! Online that his daughter "needs her mother and father to help her get through this. She won't make it without us."

Meanwhile, although he vowed to "drop all the court stuff for now," Michael and Dina are due back in family court Aug. 10 for a child-support hearing.

As for Lindsay, "she is in a very good place right now," Dina told reporters today. "It's been horrific. Unfortunately, we're stuck here and it should be over."

What also might be over soon is I Know Who Killed Me's theatrical run. The thriller, which opened Friday to not-great reviews, grossed only $3.5 million this weekend, proving that there is not no such thing as bad publicity.

Cinematic redemption could still be in the cards for Lohan, however: Lucas Jarach, director of the upcoming tango-centric Dare to Love, told People that the film is on schedule and that the crew is working to accommodate the beleaguered actress' schedule.

"It's a complication," Jarach said, referring to Lohan's recently added-to rap sheet. "But the production is not being altered in any kind of way."