Lindsay Lohan has emerged from rehab long enough to file a $100 million lawsuit against E*Trade Financial. Lohan claims the milkaholic "Lindsay" character in E*Trade's latest television commercial is based on her and that she should have paid something--or a hundred million somethings--as compensation. Sheesh, I guess whoever cast Lohan in Mean Girls knew what they were doing.
This story was all over the news yesterday. Each time someone covered it, they replayed the advertisement. Each time they blogged about it they described the ad, or linked to it. E*Trade and Lindsay Lohan got millions of dollars worth of traditional and social media exposure. And that got me to thinking...
What if this is just a publicity stunt? What if E*Trade and Lindsay Lohan have been in cahoots from the beginning? Did the agency agree to pay Lohan a fee if she would file a patently ridiculous lawsuit because they knew that such a story would be irresistible to the media and gossip hounds? Have the media been played like a Stradivarius? I think this is a distinct possibility.
Pay attention to how this turns out. If it's legit, then Lohan will pursue it through the courts until she gets a verdict. But I predict another outcome. I predict that either Lohan will drop the suit entirely or that the parties will "agree to settle out of court for an undisclosed sum (Lohan's payment for participating?)." Call me a cynic, but my theory seems the most logical explanation for such an absurd suit.
Spread the fire. GS
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