Actress Lindsay Lohan’s father, Michael, was on the phone from his house in Southampton, none too pleased about ex-wife Dina’s new reality show, Living Lohan, which premiered on the E! network Monday, May 26.
“I don’t believe in hypocrisy and deception,” he said, adding that the show is a farce. “She’s supposed to show how she’s a mother and a manager, right? First of all, if she’s acting as mother, why the heck is [son] Cody always going to sports alone or with a driver? You never see her doing homework with the kids.”
On the show, Dina appears to keep a spotless house; Michael suggested otherwise. “The place is always a mess,” he said. “She doesn’t even know what the word ‘laundry’ is.
“And she’s surrounding the kids with all the wrong people,” he continued. “In one episode”—he’s seen advance copies—“her brother Paul Sullivan, he’s out on bail, and he’s sitting at the table. They won’t even show her other brother, who just got arrested for DUI and drug possession.” (As reported in The New York Post.)
The angry father, who unsuccessfully pitched his own show, Deeds, about doing God’s good work, said he’d spent the afternoon fielding phone calls about his upcoming court date with Dina, regarding custody arrangements, on June 3. He said Ms. Lohan had missed 19 of the last 30 of those appointments.
Elsewhere in E! reality-show news: Keeping Up With the Kardashians star Kim Kardashian stirred up controversy recently when she leaked the public-service announcement she shot on the weighty subject of Burma on her personal Web site. Fanista.com, which produced the spot, had intended to hold the video in light of the cyclone.
In the segment, Ms. Kardashian discusses the embattled country with her sister Kourtney, while picking out a skimpy outfit for a benefit in its honor. “What’s this benefit for again, burping?” she asks. “Burma, not burping,” replies her sister.
“It’s hard to know what’s most offensive about this PSA,” quipped blogger Tyler Durden.
The mini-movie is one of more than 30 in a series of 60-second shorts varying in tone and featuring comedians Will Ferrell and Sarah Silverman and the actress Jennifer Aniston. The idea being to use celebrities to draw attention to a very serious cause, and the Burma It Can’t Wait campaign, said fanista.com founder Dan Adler.
“Unfortunately, due to extremely bad timing, Kim prematurely released the commercial on her Web site,” said commercial and music video director Brandon Kraines, who co-wrote the sketch with writer David Nickoll. The spot was filmed some three weeks prior to the cyclone.
But why use Ms. Kardashian in the first place? “At the time she had a No. 1 hit reality show,” said Mr. Kraines, who recently helmed a System of the Down video and an online “viral” starring Jessica Alba. Mr. Kraines noted that the Kardashian video had generated around 250,000 page views; the second-most-viewed PSA in the series had 30,000. “If anyone misconceptualized the spot, all I have to say is, ‘Watch it again and listen to the dialogue,’” he said. “This is not something that was supposed to stir up controversy.”
