Distraught Lohan sentenced to 90 days' jail

Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel ordered the Mean Girls star to report for jail on July 20. She also ordered Lohan to attend a 90-day residential substance abuse programme once she has completed her sentence.

Lohan, 24, whose once promising career has foundered in recent years, sobbed loudly on hearing the sentence. She had tearfully begged the judge for forgiveness, saying she was taking her alcohol education classes seriously.

“I am not taking this as a joke. This is my life. It is my career. It is something I have worked for all my life,” the actress pleaded.

But judge Revel’s court heard otherwise. Lohan, who did three stints in rehab in 2007, missed seven alcohol education classes over the past six months and had not attended her meetings once a week, as clearly instructed by the judge.

“I did the best I could to balance jobs and showing up,” Lohan told Revel, her voice croaking with emotion. “I was working... I was working with children, I wasn’t taking it as a joke... I wanted to come back and make you happy.”

The alcohol education classes were imposed for two drunken driving and cocaine possession arrests in 2007. Lohan spent 84 minutes in jail then as part of her sentence and was given three years probation.

Last October, her probation was extended for a year after the actress used what prosecutors termed “very creative” excuses for missing several earlier classes. “After all that, she does not comply with the court’s order and the court does find her in violation of her probation,” Revel said on Tuesday. “I couldn’t have been more clear, and it wasn’t done.”

Revel sentenced her to 30 days for each of the 2007 drunk driving charges and another 30 days for a 2007 reckless driving charge. The terms will run consecutively for a total 90 days.

The judge had earlier declined to address an alert sent out in June by the alcohol monitoring device Lohan was ordered to wear in May after missing a court hearing because she claimed she had lost her passport while at the Cannes film festival.