The Lindsay Lohan Comeback

It's official: Lindsay Lohan is making a Hollywood comeback, and fans are absolutely loving it.

The star's breakthrough role was as twin sisters Hallie Parker and Annie James in 1998's The Parent Trap, wowing audiences when they found out she played both parts.

Lohan went on to star in a variety of other cult-classic films, such as Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, but her life in the spotlight wasn't without controversy. The 37-year-old experienced a turbulent few years, with a string of drink-driving arrests and stints in rehab.

Public opinion of the former child star changed, with stories circulating of her being difficult to work with and her often being papped partying, sometimes with the likes of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

While Lohan was often chased by paparazzi and became tabloid fodder, she eventually shied away from the limelight. Now, more than 25 years after she starred in her breakthrough movie, the actor is starring in two new films, proving that 2024 is the year of Lohan's Hollywood comeback.

A representative for Lohan declined to comment on this story.

Early Career Success

The New York Native began her career as a child model at the age of 3 and by the time she was 10, she played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the television soap opera Another World.

Career success came quickly for Lohan as at the age of 11, she made her career breakthrough when she beat off competition from 4,000 other young girls to play the two main characters in Disney's The Parent Trap. Starring alongside Dennis Quaid and the late Natasha Richardson, the set was a great training ground for the young actor.

The Parent Trap was a box office hit, earning $92,146,310 worldwide according to Box Office Mojo. The film was also met with critical acclaim, and Lohan received high praise from both viewers and critics for her portrayal.

Off the back of the film's success, she landed leading roles in two other Disney releases. In 2003 she starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in Freaky Friday and in 2004 she was the star of the studio's Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen.

However, Lohan's portrayal of transfer student Cady Heron in the smash 2004 comedy Mean Girls at the age of 18 cemented her popularity as a teen idol. It also received high praise from critics, and she was named one of Hollywood's brightest young stars.

Later that year, Lohan signed with Casablanca Records and launched her singing career with the platinum-certified album Speak. In 2005 she released the gold-certified album A Little More Personal (Raw).

This didn't indicate the end of her acting career, however, as she went to star in the comedies Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) and Just My Luck (2006). In hopes of demonstrating her versatility, Lohan then began acting in independent films such as A Prairie Home Companion, Bobby (both 2006), and Chapter 27 (2007).

Hollywood "It" Girl

At the height of her career, Lohan received numerous accolades at the MTV Movie Awards, Teen Choice Awards and the Hollywood Film Festival. With her talent and success, she also became one of Hollywood's reigning It girls in the 2000s.

In 2004 Lohan decided to move to LA full-time and quickly developed a reputation for being a party girl. She became a popular target of the paparazzi, who hounded the teenage actor wherever she went.

The actor eventually became a fixture of the tabloids. In one memorable photo, Lohan is seen with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton on a night out, even though the three were reportedly feuding at the time.

Unfortunately, Lohan's partying lifestyle eventually caught up with her and started to affect her career.

Career Derailed

Her promising career was negatively impacted by a string of highly publicized legal problems. She was arrested multiple times for drink-driving and substance abuse, resulting in court-mandated stints in rehab.

While filming Herbie: Fully Loaded, Lohan was hospitalized for "exhaustion" and production was halted for three days. While the film was a monetary success, critics were largely unimpressed.

Then when she was filming the 2007 movie Georgia Rule alongside co-stars Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda, Lohan was hospitalized for being "overheated and exhausted," according to her representative at the time.

However, James G. Robinson, then Chief Executive of Morgan Creek Productions, sent a scathing letter reprimanding Lohan for "heavy partying" and her "various late arrivals and absences from the set." This was eventually leaked online by The Smoking Gun website.

"We are well aware that your ongoing all-night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion.' We refuse to accept bogus excuses for your behavior," he wrote.

When Robinson appeared at the premiere of the film, he told CBS News he was compelled to send the letter when Lohan missed a day of filming.

"She missed a day of work without telling anybody and you can have a whole crew and cast standing around—plus the cost of half a million dollars a day lost. The letter served its purpose and she's a great actress," he said.

Lohan attended drug rehab for the first time in January 2007 while filming I Know Who Killed Me. In May of that year, she was arrested for a misdemeanor DUI. She entered treatment for the second time and was issued with an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet. Two weeks after she left rehab, Lohan crashed her car and was arrested and charged with D.U.I, cocaine possession and driving on a suspended license.

Lohan pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one day in jail, 10 days of community service, and three years of probation. She also was required to pay a fine and participate in an alcohol education program. Because of overcrowding, Lohan served only 87 minutes of her jail sentence in November 2007, and, for a third time that year, she entered rehab.

By 2012, Lohan had appeared in court 20 times and completed five stays in rehab and six incarcerations. Lohan's legal issues made it difficult for producers to insure her, and she continued to lose projects, damaging her reputation.

In an attempt to reignite her career, she featured in the made-for-TV film Liz & Dick (2012) but was involved in a car accident, resulting in misdemeanor charges. The following year Lohan starred in the low-budget thriller The Canyons but it was met with negative reviews.

Quiet Life in Dubai

In 2014 Lohan moved to Dubai and lived a relatively quiet life, in stark contrast to the spotlight she lived under at the height of her fame.

She opened three beach clubs in Greece between 2016 and 2018, and in 2019, she starred in the MTV reality series Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club, which was eventually canceled. In 2020 she met her now husband, financier Bader Shammas, and in July 2023 the couple welcomed their first child, a son named Luai.

In an interview with Emirates Woman in 2018, Lohan said the move to Dubai gave her a fresh start.

"You hear more about real current events rather than celebrity gossip, which I really appreciate ... I moved here for that purpose—I don't have to be publicly seen all the time, or discuss what I'm doing," she explained.

Lohan's Film Resurgence

Talk of a serious acting comeback for Lohan began in May 2021 when Netflix announced she was starring in Falling for Christmas. The movie, which came out on November 10, 2022, marked her first role in a major production in over a decade and came eight months after Netflix announced Lohan had also signed a two-picture creative partnership, which meant she would star in two additional movies for the streaming platform.

"We're so happy with our collaboration with Lindsay to date, and we're thrilled to continue our partnership with her," Christina Rogers, Netflix's Director of Independent Film, said in a statement. "We look forward to bringing more of her films to our members around the world."

Then on March 15 this year, Lohan's second film with the streaming giant, Irish Wish, was released onto the platform. The cast attended a premiere screening event for the romantic comedy on March 5 in Manhattan, Lohan included.

The second film under the deal, Our Little Secret, began production in January 2024.

Newsweek emailed a Netflix spokesperson for comment.

Lohan's film resurgence doesn't end there, as the actor recently announced that a highly anticipated sequel for the film Freaky Friday with Jamie Lee Curtis is "in the process." However, she couldn't confirm when filming would start or if there was a completed script. The original movie saw the actors play a mother and daughter who switched bodies after eating a magical fortune cookie.

"I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this," she told People on March 4. "I'm just excited to work with Jamie again and see how much further we can take it."

Proving she's back in the Hollywood fold, on March 11 the entertainment account Pop Crave posted a photo to X, formerly Twitter, of Lohan at the Vanity Fair Oscars party. At the time of writing, it had been viewed 189,400 times.

Fan Support

Since Lohan reappeared in the public eye, fans have been rallying around the star, with many over the moon that she has made her way back to the film industry.

On March 4 the actor appeared on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Before the episode, she and Fallon published a video to TikTok and Instagram where Lohan paid tribute to her characters from The Parent Trap—and people expressed their love for the actor in the comments.

"She looks so healthy. I'm so happy for her," one person commented.

Another wrote: "Lindsey [sic] Lohan doesn't get the credit she deserved. As a child she was the lead of a full length motion picture movie... acting with an accent and switching without an accent. Switching between two completely different personalities. Basically being two different people and she aced it. You really believe they were twins and not just her.. please tell me other people see this and appreciate this. She deserved an Oscar."

A third person added: "Lindsay Lohan comeback it's a DREAM coming true."

And when the show's Instagram account shared a snippet of Lohan's interview, people once again showed their support for the actor.

"So so so happy she is thriving. Leaving LA was the best thing she ever did," one user commented.

"Love to see this woman succeed. LOHAN RISING," someone else added.

Others shared their support for Lohan in posts on X.

"Even the candids are giving it girl again oh she's really back," one person posted alongside a variety of paparazzi photos of the star, before adding in another tweet: "A movie star. It girl. Fashion icon. Living legend. Model. Muse. Greatest actress of her generation. Y2K idol. Singer-songwriter. Business woman. Entrepreneur. Activist. Queen."

While someone else wrote: "The beautiful Lindsay Lohan serving in magazine photoshoots, we're so back."