Lindsay Lohan Director Held ‘Hostage,’ Troubled Star Behaved ‘Unspeakably’

Are you surprised that Lindsay Lohan’s big comeback was practically derailed by the actress’ notoriously horrid behavior?

Us too. Lindsay Lohan’s downward spiral has been long, longer probably by several measures than her actual career — but hey, Mean Girls is the closest thing we have to a modern classic.

Lohan got a chance for a fresh start, and as we understand, did with the yoga and the wheatgrass and the early nights and really tried to get her career back on track. Kidding! Apparently she was such a nightmare to work with that the movie’s director can only speak of it in a Barbara Walters exclusive Lifetime movie sort of way.

Today, The Canyons’ director Paul Schrader described his “unspeakable” experience with Lindsay Lohan like he just came off a lengthy and malfunctioning cruise ship where everyone had to go to the bathroom in buckets and fight over the last sachet of oyster crackers.

Schrader spoke at the Venice Film Festival today, and said roughly in words translated from Italian:

“Today I am free… In the past 16 months, I have been hostage to Lindsay Lohan. She is a great actress, she should be here, but her behavior is unspeakable.”

Word around the celeb gossip campfire is that La Lohan was far away from Venice, and for good reason — all the parties. Us Weekly reports:

“Yes, nobody thought it was a good idea for her to go… That sort of atmosphere, the festival, the parties. The culture of it is drinking and celebration and not in line with keeping her on the right track.”

Schrader had previously hinted at Lohan’s difficulty on set, saying in July that she was not unlike Marilyn Monroe in a certain penchant for unrest he observed in both:

“Similarities? Tardiness, unpredictability, tantrums, absences, neediness, psychodrama — yes, all that, but something more, that thing that keeps you watching someone on screen, that thing you can’t take your eyes off of, that magic, that mystery…. [they] exist in the space between actors and celebrities, people whose professional and personal performances are more or less indistinguishable… Entertainers understand the distinction.”

Lindsay Lohan recently admitted to Oprah that “chaos” was comfortable for her.