Filming 'Betty' With Lohan Gets Ugly

Sept. 18, 2008 — -- The cast and crew of "Ugly Betty" packed its designer bags and moved production from Los Angeles to New York over the summer. They soon found out their welcoming committee consisted of Lindsay Lohan -- and a pack of paparazzi.

Tabloid superstar Lohan reprises her role of mean girl Kimmie in season three of ABC's campy comedy, premiering Sept. 25, and proves that filming in the big city can be pretty ugly.

"When Lindsay's on the set, it's mayhem," "Betty" star Ana Ortiz told ABC News Radio of the paparazzi presence. "It really puts it into perspective the bubble that she has to live in ... people yelling at her and cussing at her. It's unbelievable."

Fourteen-year-old Mark Indelicato, who plays Betty's showtune-singing nephew, Justin, described the photographers who hounded Lohan during on-location shoots as "scary" and "intense."

It's new territory for the "Ugly Betty" actors, but it's all in a day's work for Lohan. She smiled for the cameras but swept past the press at the third season premiere of "Ugly Betty" in New York this week, leaving her castmates to fill in the details of her five-episode guest stint.

The actors confirmed that Lohan's character, Kimmie, who bullied Betty in high school, is now toiling at a Queens fast food joint named Flushing Burger. (There are murmurs about a food fight.) It's clear the "Betty" cast has also gotten to know Lohan's best friend-turned-reported girlfriend, deejay Samantha Ronson, who visited the set.

"[Lohan's] had some peaks and valleys, to say the least, but I think she's found somebody who's helping her through it," Ortiz said. "They seem to have a really strong trust there."

LiLo appeared solo during her brief appearance at the "Betty" premiere party at New York's Highbar, not long after rumors swirled that she and Ronson were planning to marry.

"I would hope that if they do it … it's because they're in love and not just for publicity," Ortiz said. "People really fought long and hard for that right."

Lohan is preparing to wrap her "Ugly Betty" experience and Indelicato suspects much of the paparazzi will go with her.

"They don't stalk me," Indelicato said with a scoff. "Because they don't care about me."

What does Ugly Betty herself think about sharing scenes with Lohan? Unfortunately, America Ferrera abruptly ended her red carpet interview with ABC News Radio after an attempt to ask her about her recent comment to Seventeen magazine that "shows like 'Gossip Girl' kind of condition us to be mean."

Before walking off, Ferrera said "Betty's" move to New York hasn't been so ugly after all.

"It's just life and energy and the real world is going on around you," she said. "Either tourists are stopping by to scream out, 'We love you, Betty' … or New Yorkers are saying, 'Get out of my way, I need to get to work.'"