David Letterman is in hot water over a resurfaced interview that shows him mocking Lindsay Lohan for going to rehab and yeah, yikes.
The interview aired during a 2013 episode of The Late Show ahead of Lohan’s court-ruled 90-day stay in a rehab facility.
Although she was on the show to promote her new movie Scary Movie 5, Letterman quickly steered the conversation to the topic of her addiction issues.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in rehab now?” he asked, to which Lohan responded: “Do you not watch anything that goes on?” “What are you a tabloid now?”
Despite her evident irritation, Letterman continued on to ask Lohan questions like “how long will you be in rehab?”, “how many times have you been in rehab?” and “how will this time be different?”
On top of that, he probed her by saying “what are they rehabbing first of all? What is on their list? What are they going to work on when you walk through the door?”
As Lohan attempted to dodge the subject, she pointed out that none of the questions were cleared with her prior to the interview.
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“I think, to be honest, I’m the happiest when I’m working and the healthiest and I think this is an opportunity for me to, you know, focus on what I love in life and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a blessing,” she said.
In an attempt to change the subject, Lohan said that they had already discussed her stints in rehab in the past.
“Really? When did we? Now I’m the one having blackouts. I ought to be in rehab, for the love of God,” Letterman replied.
“We’re here for a movie… let’s stay on the positive,” said Lohan in response.
From there, Letterman finally tired to switch topics to a pre-planned segment, but Logan took his notes from him to check whether the rehab questions were on there.
Once Letterman got them back and tried to start the segment again, Lohan stood up for herself.
“You can’t make a joke of it, that’s so mean,” she said, “no, you’re not doing that. We’re not doing that. No, it’s my show now.”
Eventually, Logan began to tear up as Letterman failed to let the topic of rehab go.
Unsurprisingly, the backlash against Letterman has been swift since the interview began to spread on social media.
“It’s pretty harrowing to revisit the misogyny levied at so many of modern pop culture’s female icons. This is what a lot of us grew up watching, with the implicit understanding this was just how successful women were treated,” one Twitter user wrote.
“David Letterman was so DISGUSTING to Lindsay Lohan here! And everyone laughing at her for going to rehab. Nuts to see an adult make fun of a drug addict trying to get help. So happy Culture Loves #AA now & rehab. Everything’s changed. It was so bad then,” said another.
A third person wrote: “This is vile on so many levels. The misogyny. The blindsiding. The stigma of addiction & rehab. The hypocrisy of wanting people to recover, but then judging how they choose to do so. I hope Lindsay Lohan knows how loved she is. The world has treated her and many others so unfairly.”
Check out a clip from the Lindsay Lohan interview on the Late Show with David Letterman:
