'Mean Girl' Lohan Sues Over Baby Commercial

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Actress and tabloid queen Lindsay Lohan has filed suit in her native New York against the underwriting and securities brokerage company known for its popular "talking baby" commercials.

Lohan, 23,  filed a $100 million suit Monday in the state Supreme Court of Nassau County (Lohan v. E*Trade Securities, LLC, Case No. 004579/2010), alleging that the Menlo Park, Calif.-based subsidiary of  E*Trade Financial Corp. appropriated her name and characterization in a television ad produced by Grey Group that aired during the Super Bowl. The ad depicts two squabbling "talking" babies acting like "20-somethings." The female baby complains that the male didn't telephone her the previous evening. He claims he was preoccupied on E*Trade, "taking control like a wolf."  The female baby asks: "And that milkaholic Lindsay wasn't over?", which prompts another female baby to jump into the frame next to the male and angrily exclaim: "Milk-a-what?"

Lohan, who was jailed for a day in 2007, ordered to take an alcohol education program and placed on probation after copping to drunk driving and cocaine possession, claims the baby "Lindsay" in the commercial is a parody of her life and that viewers know baby "Lindsay" is meant to be her, much as the public would recognize other one-name celebrities, such as Cher, Madonna and Oprah. Grey Group contends Lindsay is a popular name shared by a member of its account team, after whom the ad's talking baby purportedly is named.

Lohan is seeking $50 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in exemplary damages for the alleged violation of New York Civil Rights Law Sections 50 and 51. The statutes prohibit the use of a living person's name, picture or portrait for advertising or trade purposes without the individual's consent, and provide criminal penalties and the right to injunctive relief and damages. Lohan wants to prevent the ad from being shown again and seeks every existing copy of the ad. E*Trade has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

It's questionable whether Lohan's acting accomplishments and carryings-on as reported in supermarket tabloids and newspaper gossip pages have earned her the single-name recognition of a Madonna or an Ichiro. Borrowing from the freckle-faced, redhead's filmography, one wonders from the lawsuit whether it was Herbie who was "loaded" and whether her most notorious box office dud should be retitled: "I Know Who Killed My Career."