Spears a good role model for troubled Lohan

Pop singer's switch from hot mess to top of charts a road map for Lindsay


Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. The two seem as inseparable as … well, actually, even though they seem like they should be pop culture BFFs, they reportedly aren’t sipping pastel-hued cocktails together anymore. Back in March, Spears’ dad Jamie put the kibosh on any continued friendship when Lohan reached out to ask Spears for career advice. (Insert your own smart-alecky retort here.)

Perhaps one day Lindsay Lohan, right, will have more to smile about. In the meantime, Britney Spears appears to have righted her own troubled celebrity ship.

The fact that Spears’ dad ordered her to stay away from one of her pals even though she is 28 suggests the parental instinct to protect children from impending disasters never really diminishes despite the passage of time, and in many cases intensifies. Of course, he is the conservator of her affairs as well, so he is vigilant about constructing business as well as personal barriers to his daughter.
Yet Lohan’s instinct may have been just as sharp. In identifying a kindred train wreck who has reshaped her career, the 24-year-old Lohan appears to be moving in a positive direction and is no longer making embarrassing headlines. She seemed to recognize in Spears a model for her own image rehab.
And perhaps she’ll continue to be like Spears, as soon as Lohan is discharged from actual rehab: E! Online reported Thursday that she checked into Robert Shapiro’s sober living home, Pickford Lofts. Then there’s the little matter of a 90-day jail sentence for probation violations.
First the alcohol and the slammer, then the career.
“Every time she goes to a bar or club, she’s giving herself the chance to act up in public again,” said Michael Musto of the Village Voice, “and she’s also sending the world the message that she’s not serious about regaining her career; she just wants to party.
“She seems to be constantly celebrating when there’s not that much to celebrate. Through work and application, I feel Lindsay will find the right path. I never thought I’d say this, but she needs to be more like Britney!”

Michael Ventre
today.msnbc