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If your feed has been flooded with Lindsay Lohan facelift rumours this week, you’re not alone.
The 38-year old actor is currently promoting Freakier Friday, the sequel to her 2003 classic and as usual, her presence in the public sphere is being met with an onslaught of commentary about her “new face” and, at first flush, what looked like a hollow denial of cosmetic surgery involving lemon juice.
So, what happened this time? On May 27 Lohan’s cover story with ELLE US was released online. In it, the actor sat down with Saturday Night Live’s Chloe Fineman to discuss her remarkable comeback and, yes, her face.
Lohan has always struggled with rumours and controversy outshining her body of work (so much so she sang about it on the frankly outstanding 2004 banger Rumours).
Millennial fans were just as obsessed with her feuds with Hilary Duff and chaotic nights out with Paris and Britney as they were with Mean Girls. And now, she’s experiencing the phenomena again.
Lohan is arguably one of the great comeback stories of our generation and millennials are ostensibly cheering her on. In the interview she shares that she “manifested” her three part movie deal with Netflix saying “Oh, it’d be nice to do three films with them, and then see where that goes.” Also manifested was her return to the big screen with Disney. And, she’s booked the hotly anticipated Hulu series Count My Lies. She also discussed her desire to do comedy, something she’s always had natural strengths in, an upcoming skincare line and her hopes for a second child.
But despite the career U-turn all we can talk about is what she may or may not have done to her face. It seemed like seconds after the interview was published headlines were clogging up Google discovers algorithm. Headlines ranged from “Lindsay Lohan addresses facelift rumours” to “Lindsay Lohan reveals the TRUTH behind her youthful appearance” along with inaccurate insinuations that she denied plastic surgery and laughably credited her sculpted appearance to “lemon juice.”
While we were all delighted by a poker (and frozen) faced Paris Hilton asserting great skincare and avoiding the sun was the secret behind her incredibly smooth complexion (we don’t think this California girl’s Y2K tan was purely the result of St Tropez), anyone who read the interview would know Lohan’s response wasn’t a “Millennial Queens Offer Bald Face Lies Volume 2.”
When Lohan was complimented on her glowing complexion (notably, not something achievable with a facelift) and asked what she was doing she shared a, frankly very unpleasant sounding, lemon juice and olive oil drink, a love of chia seeds and water and an enthusiasm for high end laser devices.
In fact, compared to many actors she was forthcoming. She joked that “everyone does botox” adding if someone said they don’t she thinks “Who are you? It’s like, “You lie.” She also spoke in detail about her enthusiasm for lasers and experiences with other energy based devices, As Fineman praised her “glow up” Lohan’s publicist interjected.
Yeah, but you know what the problem is with you being beautiful women—the second she looks any different, they assume she had her face lifted at 37 or 38, that she ripped apart this or that. It’s so mean.”
Lohan laughed along with the statement saying ‘Where? With what time?” but otherwise said she tries her best to “ignore everyone else.”
What Lindsay Lohan’s Glow Up Discourse Is Really About
It goes without saying that a male movie star would consistently find press tours derailed by discussions of his face – so why when we’re supposedly cheering Lohan on is this all we can talk about.
In 2024, as Lohan promoted her Netflix rom-com Our Little Secret, similar speculation surfaced. ELLE Australia spoke with cosmetic doctor Naomi McCullum of the Manse about the plastic surgery rumours . McCullum said the persistent rumours young female celebrities (because let’s remember 38 is not old) were receiving “deep plane facelifts” “fat transfers” and buccal fat removal were more attributal to efforts by mainstream media and TikTok creators to tap grabby keywords and go viral than it was about a real increase in the rates of famous women in their 30s getting Kris Jenner-style facelifts.
McCullum said that for Lohan’s age, her fresh appearance could very well be attributed to lifestyle changes (remember, the “before” photos of Lohan are largely taken from a time the actor was reportedly navigating drug and alcohol problems and was frequently puffy faced and wearing last night’s makeup), lasers, some injectables, possibly a blepharoplasty and better hair, makeup and styling. If anything it was laying off filler that was making her look more “snatched.” “If somebody is already very pretty,” she said, “its more about maintenance.” And, nobody can argue that Lohan is very pretty.
While some might argue celebrities owe their audiences honesty about how they look the way they do, the rumours the overwhelming discourse about Lohan and women like her appearance is ageist, misogynistic and far worse for our body image than a Y2k It-girl being evasive about work she’s obviously had done.
The implication beneath all the plastic surgery gossip is this: at the grand age of 38, Lindsay Lohan has no right to look this good. The idea that a woman might look better in her late 30s, ie. not like an evil crone in a Disney movie, is suspect. Ironically, given the critical coverage tone media adopt when speaking about women who enhance their appearance with cosmetic treatments, the sentiment reinforces a fear of ageing. Essentially, it prods us to wonder whether everyone is getting faceilfts without us and if we should be sinking our money into invasive beauty treatment if we want any hope of looking presentable by our 35th birthdays.
The post Lindsay Lohan’s Face Isn’t The Story But Misogyny Is Making It One appeared first on ELLE.
