Queer comic, actress, author, singer, and all around awesome performer Margret Cho (Drop Dead Diva, “Cho Dependent,” among many other projects) took to her blog to come to the defense of the media’s favorite female celebrity punching bag, Lindsay Lohan. In her post Cho questions the harsh spotlight, exponentially magnified by the incessant media coverage, that is continually cast on Lohan.
Cho’s begins her pro-Lohan post with a recount of her recent press tour of TV news outlets, where, without fail, the subject of Lohan (currently in the news for her designer purses’ theft-- seriously) came up time and time again. Cho hilariously notes the total insanity that A- a $5000 purse managed to go missing, and B- that Lohan had $10,000 in cash inside the handbag (that was NOT recovered when the purse eventually was, by the way). The obvious joke, that any of this is serious news, goes without saying.
Of Lohan’s recently leaked Playboy photos, featuring the actress nude in a Marilyn Monroe-inspired pictorial, Cho couldn’t deny they’re, “beautiful, as she is a stunningly pretty girl, and all of the bad publicity and jail time haven’t changed that, which is the great promise of youth, the enduring freshness that can withstand even head on collisions with trains." But, she continues, Lohan's "derailment hasn’t been drugs or passing out inside of hoodies in the front seats of cars or lack of undergarments or compulsivity around necklaces though, rather the myth of the tragic ingénue has been her downfall, and the Playboy photos say it most eloqently.”
Cho takes issue with the media’s rush to presuppose the ending of the troubled starlet’s life story as a Monroe-style fallen icon. Describing Lohan’s public persona as, “swaddled in red velvet, sad eyes and vermillion lips… These magazines constantly show her as if she is already dead and I feel scared and freaked out and mad like why can’t they just give this kid a fucking chance?”
Many may be quick to point out Lohan has seemingly frittered away multiple chances to get better and regain her career footing in the past. But, Cho writes the influence of the Monroe-style myth being perpetuated is doing a world of harm. And we've seen the same celebrity storyline in the recent past.
“It is a revival of the terrible trajectory played out by Anna Nicole Smith, an eventuality that I hated seeing and could do nothing to stop and now it happens again with another beauty and yet we stand by and just watch as a purse gets stolen and a life gets stolen and in the face of all this burglary we are witnessing on the world’s stage we are distracted as our humanity gets stolen right out from under us.”
The final words from outspoken actress and advocate Cho serve as a chilling warning to us all, not just Lohan.
To read Cho’s complete blog click here.
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