Lohan: 'Sending me to rehab is pointless'

Lindsay Lohan says spending three months in rehab is pointless and she'd rather be spending time helping children overseas. Photo / AP

Lindsay Lohan claims her latest trip to rehab is "pointless".

The 26-year-old actress - who began a 90-day court-ordered treatment program at the Betty Ford Centre in California on Thursday to avoid jail after pleading "no contest" to charges for lying to police about driving during a car crash last June - claims she doesn't have a problem with alcohol or drugs.

The Scary Movie 5 star told the Mail on Sunday newspaper's Event magazine: "I've never been a huge drinker. I've never woken up in the morning and had a drink.

"I don't think I need to be on lockdown for three months. I don't think that's rehab.
"I've been court-ordered to do it six times. I could write the book on rehab. Constantly sending me to rehab is pointless. The first few times I was court-ordered to rehab it was like a joke, like killing time."

The actress - who also claims she has only done cocaine "four or five times" in her life but admits to preferring ecstasy and pot - hopes that her stint in rehab will help her to change people's opinion of her.

She said: "This is where it gets hard for me to explain. I don't think there's anything wrong with people taking time to just be by themselves. I think people want to see me do that. They will keep saying the same things about me if I don't. I don't think it will be a bad thing for me to be away with myself for three months.

"I look at it as a good thing. I can come back afterwards and be fully focused on work. But I think there are other things I could do instead of going to a rehab centre that would benefit me more. The best thing they could do for me would be to make me go abroad to different countries and work with children."

Despite admitting to going to AA meetings, Lindsay, who had her first drink at the age of 17, claims that she is not an alcoholic.

She said: "No. I don't think so. But when I was younger I was definitely going out too much and I was drinking too much.

"I think my two DUIs were totally irresponsible - a stupid mistake ... Everyone thinks I'm this crazy drug addict who shows up late to everything and behaves so badly. But I'm not. I'm bad with timing."

- Bang! Showbiz