Lindsay Lohan

Will the actor's talent finally be recognised in the forthcoming Freaky Friday movie, asks Barbara Ellen

- Barbara Ellen

Is Lindsay Lohan on the cusp of pulling off the ultimate millennial redemption arc that everyone wanted to see?

The 39-year-old actor will soon be seen starring in Freakier Friday, the sequel to the 2003 blockbuster comedy Freaky Friday, in which she body-swapped with her mother (played by Jamie Lee Curtis).

Lohan is back in the Disney mothership where she broke through in 1998 as a 12-year-old child phenomenon, playing twin sisters in The Parent Trap. A multi-project creative partnership deal with Netflix - starting with 2022's festive film Falling for Christmas - previously eased her reentry into celebrity echelons.

She is also in newly calm personal territory. She married the Kuwaiti financier Bader Shammas in 2022, and they are mainly based in Dubai with their two-year-old son, Luai. A recent interview in Elle magazine saw a sober and serene Lohan chatting about green tea and pilates.

It's a PR-regulated galaxy away from the grinding chaos - drugs, partying, bulimia, overspending, riotous love life and professional near-annihilation due to unreliability - that saw her become a cautionary tale for child stardom, rivalling fellow Disney-alumna Britney Spears for the unwanted crown of noisiest celebrity car crash of the noughties and 2010s.

Between 2007 and 2010, Lohan seemed particularly troubled: in and out of rehab, incurring drink-driving charges, setting off the court-ordered alcohol-monitoring device on her ankle, appearing in court 20 times, finally being sentenced to 90 days in prison for violations (she served 13 days).

Before going to prison, she gave an interview to Vanity Fair magazine. "I want my career back," she said with startling directness. "I want the respect that I had when I was doing great movies."

This respect - or at least the knowledge that she deserves it - could be the key to Lohan's determined regenerations.