Lindsay Lohan was taken into custody today to start a 90-day jail term for violating her probation on a 2007 drunk-driving and cocaine-possession charge.
The 24-year-old Mean Girls actress, whose career has foundered in recent years while she partied strenuously, appeared at a Beverly Hills courtroom where she was formally sent to a women's jail by Judge Marsha Revel.
"I am going to order her to be remanded at this time," Judge Revel said.
Judge Revel ordered TV cameras and court photographers not to take photos of Lohan as she was handcuffed and taken away from the courtroom.
Lohan, wearing a grey T-shirt, looked tired and tense in the brief hearing. She did not speak.
Her time behind bars could be reduced to about three weeks under programs for good behavior and jail overcrowding, officials have said.
"I don't know exactly how long the jail will keep her. I can only impose the sentence," Judge Revel said today.
Lohan, who has voluntarily spent the past week in a sober living facility in Los Angeles, is expected to serve her jail time in isolation for her own security.
She seemed philosophical about her plight on Monday evening. "(T)he only 'bookings' that i'm familiar with are Disney Films, never thought that i'd be 'booking' into Jail... eeeks," Lohan wrote on Twitter.
Judge Revel sentenced a tearful Lohan two weeks ago after ruling that she had again failed to complete weekly alcohol education classes imposed in 2007. Lohan must also attend a 90-day residential rehabilitation program on her release from jail.
Lohan found fame at age 11 in a remake of The Parent Trap, and her subsequent work in Freaky Friday and Mean Girls established her credentials as one of Hollywood's most promising actresses.
But her career has declined since 2007 when she admitted she was addicted to drugs and alcohol, yet maintained a hectic nightclubbing schedule.
Lohan will serve her time in the all-female, 2,200-bed Century Regional Detention Facility, south of Los Angeles, in a nine square-metre cell, jail officials said.
The actress spent 84 minutes there in 2007 as part of her sentence for the two 2007 drunk driving and cocaine possession offenses.
This time, she will have to wear a standard orange prison jumpsuit and hand in any jewelry. Cellphones and computers are prohibited.
Reuters