Photo: Contributed - Richard McLaren/Lifetime

Lindsay Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor

We need to talk about Lindsay. These are the words that SHOULD have emerged from the mouths of Dina and Michael Lohan. But, because neither of these two wonderful examples of picture-perfect parenthood is blessed with functional maternal/paternal abilities, Lindsay has been pretty much left to her own devices for many years now.

When you look at the parenting she’s had, there’s admittedly a small part of us that feels an itsy-bitsy amount of pity for her. Naaaaah… I’m just kidding. Let’s be real: we all want to see her fall on her face, right?

Glibness aside, I think it’s time Hollywood stops enabling her and forces Lindsay into a situation where an uninterrupted stint in serious rehab is her one and only option. And no, Hollywood, you wouldn’t be able to exploit it with cameras rolling 24/7 and call it Girl, Interrupted 2.

I think I’ve watched enough episodes of Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab (I know, I know, not something I care to admit, but hey – we all need our guilty pleasures) to realize that celebs never make it back on the path to success unless they truly GET IT and get 100% clean. Look at Robert Downey Jr.: the guy got clean and now his career is burning hotter than an Okanagan summer (wait, that analogy doesn’t quite work this year).

Anyway, let’s go back to Friday when Lohan got herself into a car crash on her way to the set of “Liz and Dick”. For those not playing the Follow The Downward Spiral of Lindsay Lohan Game at home, Lindsay is currently filming a Lifetime made-for-TV movie in which she plays Elizabeth Taylor. The film is about Taylor’s iconic romance with Richard Burton.

Instead of asking how the car crash happened, the question is more a case of WHY Lohan decided to drive herself, when the studio had a limo driver waiting for her to bring her directly to the set. The film’s executive producer Larry A. Thompson, in an interview with Deadline Hollywood, said, “When they went to pick her up today, for some reason she decided they (Lohan and her assistant) would get in her own car, so the limousine driver followed them.”

“She is shaken but not stirred,” he said. “She wants to work, we are sending her to makeup hoping to resume production and get as much as we can done.”

The accident caused a setback to production on Friday, as it apparently takes 2 hours to get Lohan into makeup for the transformation.

“It’s a jigsaw puzzle,” Thompson said. “There will be a production loss today, we are just trying to minimize the loss.” According to Deadline, Thompson has been in touch with his insurance broker to figure out if the loss will be covered.

Again, why did Lindsay feel the need to go against the studio’s wishes and drive herself? Maybe she needed some private time, but given her recent experiences behind the wheel a chauffeur driven limo would probably look mighty damn good. Hmmm…

Friday’s mishap comes about on day four of shooting, and is unlikely to inspire much confidence in the troubled actress. “I was nervous before the movie started, now I’m just petrified,” Thompson tells Deadline. “I was telling someone: Lindsay went to the doctor, and I should go see a psychiatrist.”

Is Lohan worth this much trouble? Her story is made more sad because the girl’s got talent. Sure, we haven’t seen that talent in quite some time (her recent SNL hosting stint is evidence that it’s on hiatus), but I know it’s there. I can’t predict the future, but I wouldn’t count on seeing Lindsay do her 2-hour Elizabeth Taylor impression anytime soon.

Maybe that’s a good thing.