'Clean and sober' Lindsay Lohan gears up for comeback (+video)

Lindsay Lohan says her days as a hell-raising Hollywood bad girl are over, and is determined to redeem her tarnished reputation as she gears up for a comeback.

The troubled starlet, whose tabloid-chasing escapades and marathon run of bad behavior have eclipsed her career for years, says she'd down with your disbelief, and claims she's finally cleaned up her act.

Lohan, 25, in an interview with Today's Matt Lauer ahead of her Saturday Night Live hosting gig this weekend, knows she's got her work cut out to win over her critics.

"I think that that's gonna take - I think that takes time," Lohan tells Lauer in the interview that airs in the US on Thursday.

"And I think that it's actions. Because people can say things all they want, but I think I still need to go through the process of proving myself, you know, with SNL, being on time, being, you know, keeping my - can't say the word - but stuff together."

Lohan, who is undergoing community service at the LA County morgue after violating the terms of a probation stemming from her 2007 DUI case, tells Lauer that she's "clean and sober" and was previously in "denial" about her lifestyle.

The Mean Girls star recently earned a rave review from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner for keeping her nose clean.

"Miss Lohan, you're in the home-stretch," said Sautner, adding that Lohan's legal troubles should be over by March 29. "You seem to be getting your life back on track."

Asked if she was in denial the last time they spoke, Lohan tells Lauer: "Definitely. And I think it was - it's a scary thing to have to kind of express to people ... I wasn't as comfortable with myself then. I think it was a fear factor that I had about what was really going on. And, you know, I had to get that wakeup call."

'I've become more of a homebody'

Lohan also says that her days as a late-night party girl are behind her.

"That's not my thing anymore," she maintains. "I went out, actually, a few months ago with a friend. And I was so uncomfortable. Not because I felt tempted, just because it was just the same thing that it always was before. And it just wasn't fun for me. I've become more of a homebody. And I like that."

Check out a preview of Lohan's Today appearance below:

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She also confirms the already widely-reported news that she's been cast as screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in the slightly porno-sounding Lifetime TV flick, Liz & Dick.

'I will not let anyone down'

"We're in the middle of casting and figuring - we start production soon," she says. "I've been doing tons of research. But I've always kind of researched her. She's always been a fascinating woman to me. So I'm really honoured.

"And I will not let anyone down, especially myself."

She adds: "I don't want people to have that reason to be scared anymore. So being able to have this opportunity with 'SNL' and the film, I'm gonna do what I'm supposed to do, and enjoy doing it, and do it as best as I can."

Yes, we've been here before.

Lohan told Vanity Fair in 2010, just days before checking in for a two-week stretch in the slammer for a probation violation, that she was mounting a journey back to redemption.

"I want my career back," she said. "I want the respect that I had when I was doing great movies. And if that takes not going out to a club at night, then so be it. It's not fun anyway. I don't care. It's the same thing every time."

While promising that she was "a completely different person now".

And in an April 2011 interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, she said: "I have made a lot of mistakes and I recognised that, but I am in the clear now."

Several mug shots later, and she was back in the lap of woe.

Maybe this time.

What do you think, readers? Can she turn it around?

- Blogger Bites Back