The Alcoholic Card -- It Worked for Mel G. and Mark F.

A friend who happens to be a member of AA called this to my attention:

News Item: Lindsay Lohan [movie star] has been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, HER PUBLICIST SAID Friday... She said Lohan, 20, made the decision on her own to attend meetings, although Sloane [the publicist] added: "And, by the way, she's not saying ... she'll STOP DRINKING TOMORROW." [my screaming letters!]

"It's a place to go and feel safe," she said. "No one judges her, and it's going to be a slow process. But, to me, the fact that she's seeing that there's something not right makes her smarter than the next person." ...

Sloane said she thinks the press was unfair to Lohan by ridiculing a statement the actress wrote following last week's death of Robert Altman, who directed her in "A Prairie Home Companion."

A sad Lohan wrote the rambling letter "on the fly" on her Blackberry, Sloane said.

The letter, in which Lohan signs off with "BE ADEQUITE," has been criticized by a number of media observers for its grammatical errors and misspellings, among other things — including exploiting Altman's death for her own publicity purposes.

"I want everyone to leave her the hell alone," Sloane said. "I'm so bored of this with her. No matter what she does, it's never good enough for everybody."

[Her publicist tells the media that Miss Lohan is attending Alcoholics Anonymous so people will leave her the hell alone?]

My friend says the approach to a drinking problem in AA is generally to try to abstain -- NOT drink -- TODAY. "Tomorrow" never comes.

Tradition 12 of AA: "Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities."

(Come to think of it, I'm bored of this with her too.)