Michael Lohan, father of actress Lindsey Lohan, is trying to pitch a reality TV show involving a drug treatment center for women based on a luxury yacht. He already shot a pilot of one episode in Fort Lauderdale using a borrowed yacht and a dozen girls from a local center.
That's according to a former patient at the Cove Center for Recovery in Fort Lauderdale. The patient, who asked that his name not be used, says Lohan teamed up with
the Cove's owners to develop the pilot.
Lohan couldn't be reached for comment, and the owners of the center, Chris and Karen Walsh, didn't return multiple phone calls.
According to the former patient:
Lohan
came to the shelter in April to recruit the half-dozen women there to
take part in the show. They were told that they could be paid if the
show is picked up by a network, and Lohan told them the Travel Channel
was interested. The women agreed, and in late August, they were picked
up at 8 a.m. and taken to a borrowed yacht.
They spent the day
staging scenes, with the girls being told to act out emotional
interactions with one another, sometimes with several takes. They didn't
return until 10 o'clock that night.
On April 1, celebrity website X17 reported
that Lohan was looking to create a drug treatment center based entirely
on a yacht. Lohan told the site the yacht would hold eight guests and
six staff and would set sail out of Fort Lauderdale. In the article,
Lohan doesn't mention the plan to film a TV show based on the yacht.
The
former patient says he came forward with details about the reality TV
show because he feared Lohan had taken advantage of the women. "The only
thing I wanted to get out there is that Lohan isn't starting a rehab
facility. He's trying to exploit these girls."
The former patient
was at the Cove for 30 days for substance abuse, a $15,000 treatment
covered by his insurance. He says other patients objected to the idea of
the reality show, mostly because Alcoholics Anonymous is founded on the
principle of anonymity.
If the show is picked up, it isn't the first time the Cove would be featured on TV. The owners of the Cove appeared on an episode of the Dr. Phil show
with one of their patients who was refusing treatment. In the episode,
the couple agrees to take the girl back into their center for free for
up to a year to help her recover.
The former patient who spoke to
the Pulp said that he was happy with his time at the center and that its
employees had helped him kick his addictions. But he said he spoke up
for fear that the Cove and Lohan were unfairly treating women who could
appear on the show. "They had three girls in that group who were all
about 18, and I just don't think that's right that they would put them on
TV."
Follow The Pulp on Facebook and on Twitter: @ThePulpBPB. Follow Eric Barton on Twitter: @ericbarton.
