Why Lindsay Lohan isn’t Robert Downey Jr.

In the wake of Lindsay Lohan’s sentencing for a number of outstanding drug and alcohol charges, a number of news outlets compared her rise and fall with Robert Downey Jr, and I’m calling shenanigans.

Here’s three important reasons why Lindsay’s career and personal arc to this point deviate greatly from Mr. Downey and they will continue their divergence–to the point in ten years, very few people will admit they made such a claim.

Quality of performance while under the influence. Even when Robert Downey Jr. was whacked out of his mind, he delivered like a professional on the screen. And he could ( and still can ) really, really act, even as the sole focal point of the movie. The caliber of his performances were recognized and revered. If Lindsay followed his footsteps, I don’t think Herbie belongs in the same league of performance as Chaplin.

Willingness to recognize there is a problem.
Like Lindsay, Robert Downey Jr. appeared before the same judge quite a few times. Both actors received initially lenient, and then progressively more stringent sentences. But while Robert Downey Jr. kept faltering, even as the penalties increased each instance he slipped, when the real judgment came down, he admitted that he clearly was breaking his commitments. Essentially he conceded that the only option left to the judge was incarceration.

In contrast, when facing jail, Lindsay Lohan argued that by not fulfilling the terms of her probation, she was helping children. Yeah, her reasoning made no sense to the judge either. She also painted an expletive on her fingernail, displaying it for all to see when the sentence came down. That and other gestures tended to undermine the sincerity of her contrition.

Lindsay has always received far more attention for being a train wreck than for being an actor. It is far more likely that the average moviegoer can name three of Linsday’s love interests, than three of her movies. Even fewer can assemble such a list so without consulting the Internet first.

Yes, Houston, she has a problem.

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