Could jail be the best thing that's ever happened to Lindsay Lohan's career? INSIDE EDITION takes a look at several Hollywood stars who served prison time and turned their lives, and careers, around.
Could Lindsay Lohan's jail sentence scare her into turning her life around? "This may be the best thing that could happen to her," a source close to Lindsay was quoted as saying.
Recent Hollywood history shows a pattern of stars making comebacks after spending time in jail. Just like Lohan, Robert Downey Jr. was a young actor of uncommon talent who stumbled due to addiction.
"It's like I have a shotgun in my mouth and I've got my finger on the trigger, and I like the taste of gunmetal," Downey Jr. said in court in 1999.
Years of substance abuse and arrests landed the actor behind bars for more than a year. Finally, court-ordered rehab put him on a path to recovery. Today's he's a Hollywood A-lister again and starring in blockbusters like Iron Man.
"She should look at him as a role model. If Robert Downey Jr. could do it, Lindsay can do it," says Bonnie Fuller of hollywoodlife.com
Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days for several DUI-related charges. She served 23 days in the same jail where Lohan will be incarcerated. When Hilton emerged, she vowed to change her life.
"I have a new outlook on life," Hilton told Larry King.
Her Simple Life co-star, Nicole Richie, had her own run-ins with the law, having been charged with heroin possession and driving under the influence. She served only 82 minutes of a four-day sentence, but has since built a new life as a designer and a dedicated family woman. She's engaged to rocker Joel Madden and they have two children.
"The jail sentence can put her career back on track if she uses it to clean up her act and to show the world that she's a changed person," Fuller says.
