Streep adds that what fascinates her is the “special venom” that society reserves for powerful women—women like Wintour, Martha Stewart or Hillary Clinton. “The culture wants to cast them as cold,” Streep says, “as if somehow they’ve lost their maternal bearings, their essential womanhood, to occupy this space. As if they’ve had to cut off their…whatever it is…to succeed.”
In Lohan’s next screen appearance, in Bobby, she plays a young Vietnam-era idealist who marries men to keep them out of the draft. One of her screen husbands is Elijah Wood, who earns the immortal distinction of sharing Lohan’s first cinematic make-out.
“His girlfriend was there,” recalls Lohan. “I felt really bad. And my [12-year-old] sister was there, and I made her walk off set. She said, ‘Ewww! I saw you kissing!’” Lohan’s nine-year-old brother, however, was thrilled to know that Sis got busy with “the guy from Lord of the Rings.”
After Bobby, Lohan is slated for another heavy role, as a girl molested by her stepfather in Garry Marshall’s Georgia Rule, with a cast that tentatively includes Felicity Huffman, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. Lohan’s character can’t get past the pent-up anger because she doesn’t tell her mother what happened. Still, Lohan promises that it’s not a “depressing movie.”
“It’s witty and quick,” she says. “There’s swearing in it and everything, but it’s like what a real family would be. If I were to win an award, I could only hope that people would recognize me for this type of film.”
With such statements, Lohan may sometimes let her ambitions run ahead of her accomplishments, but she can be forgiven for believing that she has been groomed to receive Hollywood’s golden baton. Her agent, CAA’s Richard Lovett, also represents Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. In the lead-up to this year’s Oscars, she met her hero: Madonna.
“I met her at Bryan Lourd’s,” Lohan reports, referring to the A-list pre-Oscar party given by the CAA superagent. “When I first met her, I was in shock and I didn’t know what to say. I looked at her and was like, ‘I love you so much. Can we be friends?’ She’s so cool and down-to-earth and normal, like Meryl. Madonna is someone I would love to tour with.”
That same week she took Donatella Versace with her to Teddy’s, and lately she and buddy Natalie Portman are working on a movie idea they would like Streep or maybe Anjelica Huston to direct.
Lohan admits her head is spinning pretty constantly, and she insists that she will not let anyone dampen her giddy highs. “I just want to enjoy every moment of it,” she says, winding herself up into a defense of her night life, “whatever way that comes across to people. I’m just doing what I really love.”
