The history behind why Australia is giving Lindsay Lohan the mean girl treatment.

Movie star Lindsay Lohan landed in Australia recently with a whole lot of baggage in tow.

Baggage of the emotional and reputation based variety, that is.

The actress turned singer turned reality TV star is visiting our fair shores to star on the new Network Ten show The Masked Singer Australia alongside Dannii Minogue, Jackie O and Dave Hughes.

Since the announcement of her role in the series, and her first Instagram post from Australian soil where she tried out some Aussie inflections by kicking things off with a”G’day”, there has been a debate within the media and among fans about her legitimacy for the role and her past work history.

There is no doubt that the 33-year-old former Disney star has a past littered with controversy, failed business ventures and a number of brushes with the law.

After her big box office hit role as the lead in the iconic Tina Fey penned comedy Mean Girls, which premiered in 2004, it appeared that her path to Hollywood success was set. Prior to that, her roles in classic family flicks like The Parent Trap and then in romantic comedies such as Just My Luck ensured that she was universally beloved by legions of fans.

From there, her resume does get a little less rosy.

To hear all about the rise of Lindsay Lohan, how Oprah Winfrey tried to save her career and why Australia is divided over her presence here listen to Mamamia’s new daily entertainment podcast The Spill.

The first real hint of trouble for Lindsay Lohan came in January 2007 when she entered a drug rehab program for the first time and then on May 26, 2007 the actress was arrested on a misdemeanour drunken driving charge after she lost control of her car and struck a curb in Beverly Hills.

2007 continued being a difficult year for Lindsay when, two weeks after checking out of rehab, she was arrested again. This time it was due to a woman calling the Santa Monica police and alleging that Lohan was trying to run her down with a car, resulting in her being charged with drunken driving, cocaine possession and driving with a suspended license.

In the decade that followed Lindsay continued to have legal issues and even dipped out of the spotlight for a hot moment until it was announced in December 2018 that she would be starring in her very own MTV series Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club. 

The high publicised docuseries promised to chronicle the life of the actress as more of an entrepreneur and follow her as she expanded her business empire in Mykonos, Greece with the launch of her new club Lohan Beach House.

In June of this year, however, Page Six reported that Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club would not be back for a second season while also reporting that her Mykonos nightclub, which served as the setting for the show, had also closed down.

Which of course is how Lindsay found herself signing up for an Australian reality TV show, but it’s still nowhere near as bleak a narrative as some are pointing it out to be.

The reality of this situation is that The Masked Singer Australia needs Lindsay Lohan just as much as Lindsay presumably needed the new gig and the pay packet that comes with it.

Say what you want about her past and her professional track record, but the fact is there would be few people in Australia right now who would not know her name, and be across that fact that she’s here and in turn her presence is already generating press and attention for The Masked Singer Australia.

While we do have a raft of talented people in Australia who deserve to have their faces on the small screen, shows such as The Voice Australia have proven that having an international celebrity guest on board is a much-needed ingredient in the recipe for success.

The Masked Singer Australia is coming soon to 10 and WIN Network.

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