Lindsay Lohan’s Tense 2013 Interview With David Letterman Resurfaces After ‘Framing Britney Spears’

Framing Britney Spears has inspired a look back at how the media has treated young women stars in the past decade, including Lindsay Lohan. On Saturday, a 2013 interview she did on The Late Show With David Letterman resurfaced as part of this looking back. At the time, Lohan was promoting Scary Movie 5, but all Letterman asked Lohan about repeatedly was her upcoming trip to rehab.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in rehab now?” Letterman asked Lohan right off the bat. She said her next stay in rehab was going to start in May that year. Letterman then asked her a series of quick, short questions about her rehab stay. “How many times have you been in rehab?” he asked her. “Several,” she said as the audience began to laugh. “How will this time be different? What are they rehabbing? What’s on their list? What are they going to work on when you walk through the door?” Letterman fired off in quick succession as Lohan sighed. “We didn’t discuss this in the pre-interview,” Lohan said as she shook her head.

“To be honest, I’m happiest when I’m working and healthiest,” Lohan said. “I think this is an opportunity for me to, you know, focus on what I love in life. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a blessing.”

Letterman continued to press her on the subject though, next asking her if she had “addiction problems.” Lohan took a moment before telling Letterman he sounded like Dr. Phil McGraw. The host continued to press though, even asking her if she drinks “too much.” The Parent Trap star tried to get Letterman to change the subject by telling him they talked about it in the past, which caused Letterman to joke that he was the one having a “blackout.”

In the next segment, Letterman tried to ask Lohan what Lohan does in rehab. She told him she was there to talk about a movie and asked him to “stay on the positive.” But then Letterman said he had a list of the things she has “endured” over the years, and she took it from him. As she read them, she pretended to laugh and said, “I thought you were going to be nice.” Letterman reached for the list, but Lohan pulled it away.

Lohan later read some of the jokes out loud before telling Letterman not to make fun of her struggles. “You can’t make a joke of it,” she said. “That’s so mean.” Letterman asked her if he could deliver one of the jokes on the list and she refused. “No, we’re not doing that. This is my show now,” she said, shaking her head. In the end, Lohan started tearing up. “Awww, she’s tearing up a little bit,” Letterman said. “God bless you.” One person yelled, “I love you” from the audience, which prompted Lohan to say, “I love you too” back.

The Lohan interview resurfaced after the New York Times‘ documentary Framing Britney Spears aired on FX and began streaming on Hulu. Part of the film looks at how media coverage treated Spears and other young women negatively in the 2000s. It also led fans to praise former Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson for refusing to make jokes about Spears during a 2007 monologue.