Mom says judge, media too hard on Lohan

NEW YORK, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Lindsay Lohan's mother told interviewer Matt Lauer the media and justice system are largely to blame for the U.S. actress' problems.

The 24-year-old star of "Freaky Friday" and "Mean Girls" has served two stints in jail and taken four trips to rehab, due to her addictions to alcohol and drugs.

Talking to Lauer on Friday's edition of the "Today" show, Dina Lohan blamed her daughter's problems on the tabloids, the Internet, Lindsay's father Michael and Marsha Revel, the judge who recently recused herself from handling Lindsay's parole violation in her 2007 driving under the influence case, E! News said.

Lindsay spent nearly two weeks behind bars this summer for missing her court-ordered alcohol education classes.

"I think (Revel) went overboard and played serious hardball with Lindsay," Dina Lohan said, adding she didn't think her daughter deserved any jail time at all "for this particular offense."

Dina also said she didn't agree with the public opinion that Lindsay's recent stays in jail and rehab might help her daughter deal with her problems.

"I think that's all propaganda. As you know, you're in the business of entertainment, I think a lot of it is pre-orchestrated and you're reading things that are not fact," Dina said.

When Lauer said, "You can't blame it all on the tabloids, she has made some wrong decisions," Dina replied: "As a parent, you have to let them go a little bit and when she went out to Los Angeles when she was 19, I had to let her go and live and fall and fail and survive, and without failure there's no success. You can't make your child not go out and go to a club and not get behind the wheel of a car and I certainly don't condone that type of behavior," E! News said.