"Living Lohan (E!, Mondays at 10:30 p.m. ET), however, is not just a symptom of cultural decay but an active agent of it, commodifying the very youth and soul of Ali Lohan—younger sister of poor little Lindsay. It's part of a package deal with a Las Vegas casino and a Sacramento basketball team, actually, with Varietyreporting that the Maloof Prods, co-producers of the show, will use it to showcase other holdings, including a recording studio at the Palms.
Ali, 14, is a lanky brunette with a cute beaky nose and an affection for hoodies—a starlet's little sister in the Ashlee Simpson mold. She wants to be a singer, but, in the first episode, disdains the lame tracks that the label keeps sending over. She hopes to hit it off with a "producer" named Jeremy, an obvious punk who needs tighter beats and also to pull up his pants. "I can really trust him," the girl says. The episode ends in a cliffhanger as Jeremy is called to account for the fact that his hometown paper caught him insinuating that he was hooking up with Lindsay. Note to Ali: You can't trust anyone, doll face. Get used to it.
As a mother, Dina is a pretty good manager. Given how Lindsay has turned out—just barely employable, overly fond of the wrong kind of attention—I don't quite understand how it is that this show does not constitute child abuse by its very existence, and yet I cannot deny that Dina Lohan's parenting skills are superficially OK. We see her teaching Ali to stay true to herself, and she has yet to exhibit either sad permissiveness or pushy stage-mothering on-air. The main signal of how out of whack things must be in the Lohan household is the avidity with which she flips through tabloid magazines in search of items about Lindsay."

Best Internet Variety Show (and Good Luck Getting Anything Done, Ever) in 2005! 


Comments