David Letterman is receiving backlash for his insensitive 2013 interview with actress Lindsay Lohan.
Lohan, who’s infamous for her “party animal” persona, has almost been the butt of every rehab joke out there in magazines, TV interviews, and SNL skits.
Now, fans are lashing out in light of the resurfaced Letterman interview where the Late Show host steps over the line with persistent (and wildly inappropriate) questions regarding Lindsay’s drug and alcohol addiction.

Twitter-user Trey Taylor (the US editor at The Face) first brought the interview to our attention, commenting that it’s “horrifying to watch now.” And he is not wrong.
This Lindsay Lohan interview on David Letterman in 2013 is horrifying to watch now. pic.twitter.com/lZxKVvbVB0
— 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐨𝐫 (@treytylor) February 13, 2021
In a ‘comedic’ manner, Letterman asks Lindsay a series of uncomfortable questions about her experiences with rehab as well as presenting a menu of unsettling ‘jokes’, each promoting a toxic stigma surrounding addiction and rehab.
Lindsay attempts to steer off the topic by saying “let’s stay on the positive,” calling out the host on his bullying and noting that she was there to promote her new movie, Scary Movie 5.
With now millions of views since the edited clip was posted over the weekend on Twitter, majority of the comments support Lindsay and share the belief that Letterman was out of line with his string of ill-judged questions.
Disgusting.
— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) February 14, 2021
“There’s a time and a place for those kind of questions and being ambushed while you’re out promoting a movie is not one of them. You must agree to an interview like that,” Twitter user @JohnDRuddy commented.
“He really enjoyed asking women inappropriate questions and watching them squirm while the audience laughed,” @AndrewJGouveia added, referencing an old Christina Aguilera interview.
Other examples of painful Letterman interviews that were shared in the comments section included Cher, Janet Jackson, and Lady Gaga.