NEW YORK - Lindsay Lohan talked about her first stay in rehab in an interview that Elle magazine says took place 36 hours before her drunken driving arrest over Memorial Day weekend.
"I was growing up and going out a lot, and I needed to have a balance,'' Lohan tells the magazine of her stay at the Wonderland Center in Los Angeles in January.
"I was glad I went because I needed to get away from everyone and I didn't know how to do that. And I learned a lot there. A bunch of my friends -- I was with them last night -- they're in AA for, like, years,'' the actress is quoted as saying.
On May 26, Lohan was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence after crashing her car into a curb on Sunset Boulevard. She entered the Promises Malibu Alcohol and Drug Rehab Treatment Facility and was released on July 13, after a stay of more than six weeks.
On July 24, the 21-year-old actress was arrested in Santa Monica for investigation of drunken driving and cocaine possession.
In the Elle interview, Lohan asks her assistant Jenni Munro if she can put "the Mercer story'' on the record.
Munro then relates the incident, saying Lohan lied about her sobriety during an interview at Manhattan's Mercer Hotel. It was unclear when that interview took place.
"I started laughing,'' Munro is quoted as saying. "And she says, `Why are you laughing?' And it's because I had just texted our friends this very thing: `A cab to the Mercer, 20 dollars; a room at the Mercer, 500 dollars; listening to Lindsay Lohan say she's sober? Priceless.'''
The September issue of Elle, which features Lohan on the cover, is on newsstands August 14.
