Lindsay Lohan Discussed the Power of Selfies on The View Today

Lindsay Lohan co-hosted The View Friday, after being led onstage (in Barbara Walters’ words) “like a good daughter.” During the episode, Lohan talked about her comeback, tried to talk about the craft of acting with Marisa Tomei and cooked with Sherri Shepherd. During all that activity, however, she never really got comfortable.

Walters started off by introducing Lohan as a “young woman I’ve been trying to interview for years,” accidentally implying that now that Lindsay’s got a reason to buddy up to Barbara, she’s come a-knocking. During the obligatory segment in which the hosts asked Lohan how she’s doing in a promotion for the season finale of Lindsay on OWN this Sunday, Lohan said yet again that she’s doing a great job with her life and sobriety. When asked what the biggest misconception about her life is, after exclaiming, “Oh, I don’t even know where to start,” Lohan said that “a lot of people forgot that [acting is] what I’m actually in this industry for.” Newly-engaged and love-struck Jenny McCarthy wanted to know if Lohan has a boyfriend right now, which she denied, explaining, “That has been a distraction for me in the past.”

Though Lohan’s inclusion in The View‘s “Hot Topics” segment could have been a source of potential excitement, as she has demonstrated in all recent interviews, she’s understandably lost her comfort with being entertaining in a way that’s not somewhat disquieting. For someone who is promoting a show where she plays herself, Lindsay was hesitant to share any of her own strong opinions when gabbing with the gals and seemed somewhat nervous for most of the episode. When the group interviewed Marisa Tomei, she was intent on emphasizing their connection as fellow actors, trying to talk with Tomei about how they had both worked with Nancy Meyers.

Unfortunately for her, it’s the world of celebrity culture and not the world of making movies that Lindsay has the most familiarity with these days. The moment she was the most comfortable was when the women talked about whether taking selfies can be a sign of mental illness. At this point, Lohan perked up and said she likes taking them because once she puts a photo up on Instagram, the paparazzi stop bothering her because they no longer have a valuable photo to take.

The rest of the ladies spent the episode cheerleading Lindsay, but it didn’t seem to matter: as many times as Lindsay has said all she wants to do is work, she’s been so distanced from the actual industry part of Hollywood that she doesn’t seem to remember how to do the PR part of acting, which requires actors be a delightful version of themselves on talk shows. An alternative theory: Lindsay was never good at this part of the game and we’ve just forgotten that because she hasn’t had to do it for so long.