US judge presses Lindsay Lohan over counseling

A US judge ordered troubled US actress Lindsay Lohan Thursday to sign up for psychological counseling, a key condition of her receiving probation for an alleged jewelry theft. At an updated hearing on Lohan, who was banned last month from holding parties while in home detention, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Stephanie Sautner said she had three weeks to enroll for one-on-one counseling. "Trust me, she will be held to that (enrollment) deadline," Sautner said. "I will not take into consideration, 'Sorry, I was on the set of the John Gotti movie.' This will be completed on time," she said. The 25-year-old was sentenced to 35 days of home detention in May, as part of a plea bargain over the alleged theft of a $2,500 necklace from a jewelry shop near her home in Venice Beach. On June 23 she was brought back to court after reportedly testing positive for alcohol, and banned from partying -- specifically by having no more than one friend to visit at a time -- while she completed her home detention. On Thursday the judge said Lohan had so far completed 33 hours of the 480 hours of community service she was sentenced to, and attended a counseling course for shoplifters, but had not enrolled yet for psychological counseling. Her lawyer Shawn Holley said the actress was making efforts to complete the psychological counseling, but could not attend group sessions because of the risk of someone trying to profit from information gleaned. Lohan had been enrolled in one-on-one counseling sessions at UCLA, but had to end that program due to "financial issues" apparently involving her insurance coverage, the attorney said. She added that Lohan would complete the counseling requirement. It is the latest in a long list of legal tangles for Lohan -- once the promising child star of hit Disney movies "The Parent Trap" and "Freaky Friday" -- who has a reputation for hard partying. In July last year Lohan was sentenced to 90 days in jail and another 90 days in rehab for violating her probation in a drunk driving case, but served just 13 days due to prison overcrowding. She was jailed again in September, but was granted bail after only 15 hours behind bars and subsequently checked into rehab for drug addiction, a course she completed in January.