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The Lindsay Lohan Media Circus

For those of us who thought the news of Lindsay Lohan going to jail was going to fade out as soon as she was actually put behind bars, today's headlines show that we're not going to be that lucky.

One of her friends made a comment that Lohan "has no intention of going to jail." She's hired a new lawyer, and plans to plead that she's being dealt with harshly because of her celebrity.

Now most of us would probably look at the situation and argue that, if anything, Lohan's celebrity is the only reason she wasn't put in jail sooner.

Many thought that she would use going to jail as a way to reinvent herself--it certainly worked for Martha Stewart. She was more popular after getting out of jail than she was when she began her prison sentence. In that case, however, there was some contention as to whether or not Martha was actually being targeted, whereas when Lohan explains why she shouldn't be going to jail, she sounds even guiltier than when the judge explains it.

Her argument that she had to miss alcohol education counseling because she had to be out of the country to work is flimsy at best. After all, she wasn't leaving the country to film a movie, just to jetset off to Europe. The letters "FU" on her fingernails directed towards the judge and her ranting about the unfairness of the situation only enhance the persona of her as a spoiled, rich brat.

Although I'm a rarely a fan of media circuses, I do think this one might have a silver lining. If Lohan does do jail time, it will hopefully put an end to decades of celebrities being let off the hook for committing crimes regardless of how expensive their lawyers are.

Some would say she's also sending a bad message to girls who idolize her. I disagree with this. Unlike some people, I dispute the idea that young girls look up to Lohan. I work at a library, and all the teen girls that come in seem to have the same idea of her that everybody else does, which is that she's a mess. (Teens can be more perceptive than we give them credit for.) Even though she may no longer be a teen idol, however, that doesn't mean she doesn't send out a message that if you're rich and famous, you can do whatever you want. I'm afraid that with people like this on the cover of every magazine, the next generation will be even more cynical than this one is, and the celebrity antics will grow bigger, worse, and perhaps even dangerous.

Lohan's friend, the one who assured a reporter that Lindsay would do jail time, said that Lohan is familiar with the movie Chicago, and that's how she knows she's being targeted.

She must have forgotten the part about how everyone in the movie was guilty.

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