David Letterman catches backlash over resurfaced Lindsay Lohan interview where he seems to mock her rehab
The star appeared on his show before she was set to go into rehab for 90 days
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David Letterman is catching some backlash on social media over a resurfaced interview with Lindsay Lohan in which he seemingly mocked her for going to rehab.
The interview was from a 2013 episode of "The Late Show" in which the star was on hand to talk about her new movie and TV project ahead of a very public stint in rehab. The troubled star had been in and out of treatment since 2007 amid a flurry of public gaffes and addiction issues.
On Saturday, a Twitter user named Trey Taylor uploaded a video showing excerpts from the interview in which Letterman seems to go off-book and makes light of Lohan’s addiction despite her clearly becoming uncomfortable.
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"Aren’t you supposed to be in rehab now?" the host asks.
"Do you not watch anything that goes on?" a seemingly annoyed Lohan tells him. "What are you a tabloid now?"
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Despite her frustration, Letterman continues to press Lohan, asking repeated questions like "How long will you be in rehab?" "How many times have you been in rehab?" and "How will this time be different?"
At the time, she agreed to do 90 days in rehab to avoid jail time over a car accident the year prior.
"What are they rehabbing first of all? What is on their list? What are they going to work on when you walk through the door?" he asks.
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"We didn’t discuss this in the pre-interview, just saying," Lohan says while looking to someone off-camera.
Lohan continued: "I think, to be honest, I’m the happiest when I’m working and the healthiest and I think this is an opportunity for me to, you know, focus on what I love in life and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s a blessing."
Undeterred, the clip shows Letterman continuing to press the actress to talk about rehab and her wild lifestyle. She continues to try and playfully shut the line of questioning down by telling him they’d discussed this in the past.
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"Really? When did we? Now I’m the one having blackouts. I ought to be in rehab, for the love of God," he says.
"We're here for a movie," Lohan responds. "Let’s stay on the positive."
Letterman then tried to kick things over to a pre-planned segment, but the actress snatched his notes from him in order to inspect them first after the surprise rehab questions. When Letterman got them back and tried to begin the segment minutes later, Lohan put her foot down.
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"You can’t make a joke of it, that’s so mean," she said. "No, you’re not doing that. We’re not doing that. No, it’s my show now."
While both celebrities kept things playful, Lohan finally began to tear up as the host continued to prod her with rehab jokes. The resurfaced clip prompted some extreme reactions from people on social media as his name began to trend on Twitter.
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"Ugh this makes me so sad. Shame on David Letterman and shame on his show for the claps and laughs throughout the interview," one user wrote.
"There to discuss and be interviewed about a movie and David Letterman disregards this to concentrate on her personal battles knowing she is still dealing with them. I have no interest in this type of journalism, publicly embarrassing and making someone feel uncomfortable," wrote another.
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"I wanna say David Letterman is allowed to make mistakes, but he's been on TV since forever. I wanna say this could be a norm in 2013, but it's painful to watch. Let's all just learn from it," a third person wrote.
"I never cared for David Lettermàn. I hope he has learned and grown since then," someone else wrote.
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Representatives for Letterman did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.