Photos of Lindsay Lohan for the January issue of Playboy magazine have found their way onto the internet, potentially spoiling high projected sales for the magazine, but the news could be good for Lohan in the short term.  The leak has created quite a buzz for the young troubled actress, but the history of those who have tried to use Hugh Hefner's magazine to re-boot their careers is not as good as you may think.

The photo spread for Lindsay has her baring it all over 10 photos that includes the cover.  Lohan's inner Marilyn Monroe came out with the distinctive hair style, blonde locks and seductive poses.  The Ellen DeGeneres Show has her scheduled for next week to help promote the scheduled December 15th release of her Playboy edition (which may move up because of the internet leak, according to CEO Hugh Hefner), giving the 25-year-old attention that has nothing right now to do with drugs, stealing, or jail.

The idea here seems to have Lindsay get attention to help her get her acting career back on track.  Most people would believe that the best approach for Lohan would be rehab, sobriety, and taking responsibility for her actions, but there seems to be this myth that you pose for Playboy and your career comes back.  Drew Barrymore was not hurt by her Jan. 1995 spread - a string of about a half a dozen films over the next 4 years followed.  Drew's path may be the model Lindsay is trying to follow, but remember when Barrymore posed she had earned a Golden Globe nomination for her acting the year before - Lohan has been winning Razzies for the year's worst performance.

If you look carefully at some of the name actresses who chose to take the money and pose for Playboy (Lohan has rumored to have received $900,000), the results for their careers have been for the most part a miss:

Janet Jones - March 1987: The actress was developing her career from the high profile John Travolta flick Staying Alive, to positive reviews for The Flamingo Kid with Matt Dillon, to being a part of A Chorus Line.  She followed Playboy with Police Academy 5, and for all intensive purposes the end of her acting life - she is known today for being Mrs. Wayne Gretzky.

Shannen Doherty - March 1994 and December 2003: Notice that both times she went to Playboy after exiting hit TV shows (90210 and Charmed).  She is currently in a TV ad campaign for an on-line university and prepping for a new reality series - does this mean a 3rd stint is coming?

Suzanne Sommers - December 1984: The options were believed to be limited for the Three's Company star who was in a  "freeze out" by ABC.  She saw her proposed CBS show fall through, and no jobs were coming.  The public perception is that being the spokeswoman for the Thigh-Master resurrected her career more than Playboy.

Dana Plato - June 1989: From the big sister on Diff'rent Strokes to stripping down for the magazine, leading her to a path to nowhere!  Plato was relegated to pictures that would be played "After Hours" on Cinemax, a criminal record, and dying 10 years after the pictorial.

Denise Richards - December 2004: From being a "Bond Girl" (The World Is Not Enough), to Playboy, to Dancing With The Stars, to being most known now as Charlie Sheen's ex.

This is not to say that Lindsay Lohan cannot go the path of Kim Basinger - who turned her December 1983 appearance in Playboy to promote her "Bond Girl" spot in Never Say Never Again into a Golden Globe nominated performance the next year in The Natural.

Brook Burke has not been hurt by her 2 spreads in Playboy (2001 and 2004).  Burke went on to host the highly rated Rock Star: INXS, win Dancing With The Stars in 2008 and now is co-hosting the ratings juggernaut.

Playboy magazine has provided a vehicle to be seen, happens to be a nice paycheck, and you do become the flavor of the month, but that buzz is short lived.  Fact is that the impact of a Playboy pictorial has been curbed over the years because of the internet and the access to avenues that were never available before the 90s.

Playboy has lost some of its cache, and may lose much more with these leaked Lohan photos.  The projections were that the magazine was expecting record sales of the magazine because of Lindsay Lohan - now the internet has them out there for free.  Sadly the end result for both parties is looking like a lose-lose proposition, and is Lindsay any better mentally or emotionally for doing this?  Only time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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