Lindsay Lohan, whose name has graced just our headlines no fewer than 376 times in the past year, is garnering attention once again this week. This time, it’s because the Sundance Film Festival–which is already in full swing–rejected her new movie, “The Canyons”, and now SXSW has followed suit.
There have been rumors swirling for a while now about the festival organizers’ motives for turning it down, including that they received too many complaints from locals that it didn’t fit in with their idea of what the festival is all about (the film allegedly depicts graphic sex scenes and violence). A person involved with SXSW said, “It’s got an ugliness and a deadness to it.”
But it probably doesn’t help that even the film’s director, Paul Schrader, was aware of the ramifications that Lohan’s last movie, the Lifetime Original Debacle “Liz & Dick”, would have on his work. In fact, “The Canyons” was pushed back for release because of it.
“The intense reactions to ‘Liz and Dick’ and the Times Mag article have made us realize that there will be an immediate blowback once ‘The Canyons’ is publically screened -– for good and ill,” he said. “That’s the nature of anything involving Lindsay.”