The tabloid press will have to feed off some other luckless celebrity for the next few weeks. Lindsay Lohan has gone to jail.
The actress and celebrated problem child has been hustled off to Lynwood Correctional Facility to begin serving her 90-day sentence for one of her several public indiscretions.
The actress arrives at the Beverly Hills courthouse, July 20, 2010.
Most legal experts have predicted that Lohan will serve approximately one-quarter of her mandated sentence because of prison overcrowding. The Lynwood facility is the same jail where celubutante Paris Hilton served 23 days of a 45-day sentence in 2007 for violating her probation relating to a drunk-driving conviction.
Like most things in the 24-year-old's life, Lindsay's trip to jail was a mob scene and chaos personified.
The website TMZ live-streamed a video feed of the scene outside the Beverly Hills courthouse where Lohan was ordered to report Tuesday morning to begin her 90-day sentence for violating the terms of her probation relating to a 2007 sentence for reckless driving, drunken driving and driving under the influence of cocaine.
In the days leading up to Tuesday's event, several prominent legal analysts speculated that Lohan's 90-day sentence was too harsh for the crime. In recent weeks her father, Michael Lohan, has made public his belief that his daughter requires time in a drug-rehab facility, not jail. Both father and daughter have been estranged for years.
At the same time, other legal experts predicted that Lohan would have to serve the entirety of her 90-day sentence, possibly because she displayed an obscene phrase painted on one of her fingernails during her last courtroom appearance. Such Hollywood drama.
Lindsay was supposed to report at 8:30 a.m., L.A. time; she showed up 10 minutes late in a black stretch limo.
Outside the courthouse, scores of paparazzi and mainstream media lined up for their shot at the Lohan photo op.
Some members of the press lined up to interview a man in a pink T-shirt emblazoned with "Free Lindsay," who kept screaming exactly that, over and over. "What did she even do?" cried the man. "She partied a little, that's it!"
Inside the court Lohan wore dark slacks and a sleeveless grey T-shirt. She was represented by lawyer Shawn Chapman Holley, who was apparently rehired late yesterday. Holley resigned as Lohan¹s lawyer two weeks ago. Last Friday, Lohan's representatives announced that she would be represented by famed L.A. criminal lawyer Robert Shapiro, and promptly checked into a "sober-living" home founded by Shapiro.
For the first several minutes, the TV cameras were allowed to film Holley and the judge discusing the terms of the sentence. Lohan was shown scowling and looking very serious. The cameras were abruptly shut off.
Outside, the press throng prepared for Lohan¹s departure from the courthouse parking garage and her trip to jail.
And it was a discreet departure, with Lohan leaving through a back exit. In front of the courthouse, the tabloid press swarmed to an impromptu press conference by Lohan's father. "I wish I had a dad like you!" one paparazzi enthused. CNN announced repeatedly that Michael Lohan would be the feature guest on Tuesday's edition of Larry King Live.
Once the paparazzi began milling aimlessly, TMZ switched over to a local TV station's live overhead helicopter coverage of the car transporting her to Lynwood via an L.A. freeway. It was eerily reminiscent of the O.J. Simpson Bronco chase.
Then TMZ cut back to the courthouse, where an excited paparazzo was announcing that Lohan had reportedly already tweeted about her transport to jail (a false alarm, as it turned out). Others were shown packing up their cameras and leaving the courthouse. The next chapter in the Linsday Lohan reality show will have to wait until her release from jail.