Can Tabloid Stars Become Movie Stars?

April 2, 2008 — -- If you were trying to stage a Hollywood career comeback at the age of 21, you probably wouldn't choose a minor role in a dark, low-budget movie about the murder of John Lennon. But then you're not Lindsay Lohan.

The movie "Chapter 27" opened this weekend to dismal reviews and took in only about $13,000 at the box office — though, to be fair, it only screened in New York. Still, it's got some industry insiders scratching their heads about just where Lohan goes from here.

Bradley Jacobs of US Weekly gave the film just 1½ stars out of four. "I thought her role in it was totally disposable," he told ABCNews. Maybe she thought it would be cool to be in this film, but she just continues to choose these dark, off-beat movies and that's not her strength."

Nevertheless, Lohan announced this week that she has signed on to another film where murder and mayhem are the central themes. Lohan will play the part of Nancy Pitman, one of Charlie Manson's cult followers in an independent production called "Manson Girls."

"Manson Girls" it's safe to say, is a long way from the lead in "Mean Girls" — one of Lohan's biggest box office successes to date, having pulled in $86 million.

"Between the poor movie choices and getting herself into the news in unseemly ways she has run her brand into the ground," says Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, an online box office reporting service.

These "unseemly ways" include several stints in rehab and two 2007 arrests for suspected DUI and cocaine possession, which scored her a sentence of one day in jail, 10 days community service, hundreds of dollars in fines and probation. Not only did Lohan's extracurricular activities make her seem unreliable as a person, they made her unemployable as an actress, with film insurance underwriters declaring her temporarily uninsurable.

But that was then. Now, it seems, Lohan is trying to become one of Hollywood's comeback kids — the many stars who have put their troubles and mug shots behind them to go on to successful careers: Robert Downey Jr., Rob Lowe, and Drew Barrymore.

Can Lohan pull it off?

Time will tell, of course, but in today's 24/7 media culture it's not easy for those — like Lohan — who are cogs in the gossip media machine to transcend their Girls (or Boys) Gone Wild image. Downey Jr. and Barrymore never had their every move posted on TMZ.com or PerezHilton.com, or in tabloid magazines like Us Weekly, In Touch, and OK.