Actress Lindsay Lohan was nowhere to be seen at the premiere of her movie The Canyons at the Venice Film Festival
Actress Lindsay Lohan was nowhere to be seen at the premiere of her movie The Canyons at the Venice Film Festival Reuters

Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan has failed to show up at her movie premiere in Italy.

Paul Schrader, the exasperated director of her new film The Canyons, told a press conference: "She is a great actress... but her behaviour is unspeakable.

"For the last 16 months, I have been a hostage by my own choosing to a very talented but unpredictable actress," Schrader said of his leading lady, who is also credited as a co-producer on the movie. "She was supposed to be here today. She said she would be here, but she is not."

Lohan had been due on the Venice Lido for the Italian premiere of the film but was nowhere to be seen.

Less than a month ago, Lohan completed a court-ordered 90-day stay at a rehabilitation centre. She admitted to being addicted to alcohol in a candid interview with chat show queen Oprah Winfrey.

The Canyons is a straight-to-video erotic thriller written by cult author Bret Easton Ellis, best known for American Psycho. The film, shot for a reported $150,000, has become a cult phenomenon in the US but has been ridiculed by many reviewers.

"You could put a lot of work into figuring out what's wrong here, but why bother? Pretty much everything's wrong," wrote the Detroit News.

Speaking in Venice, Schrader refused to answer questions about Lohan's private life, saying they were "off the table".

"Some fear Lohan will end him [Schrader]," the New York Times reported from the set of the film. "There have been house arrests, car crashes and ingested white powders. His own daughter begs him not to use her. A casting-director friend stops the conversation whenever he mentions her name."

A Hollywood executive said recently: "Lindsay Lohan is now like US golfer John Daly. She's a curiosity who is watched primarily for the side entertainment she offers, not for her professional performance. Her stints in rehab and personal life drama won't have much effect on how well The Canyons does because the movie has already been ripped apart."

In The Canyons, Lohan plays opposite real-life porn star James Deen, who recently said that acting was much easier than performing in hardcore pornography.

Watch The Canyons trailer

The New York Times New York Hollywood