'Liz & Dick' Producer Talks Risks Of Working With Lindsay Lohan

Larry A. Thompson has long been fascinated with celebrity couples who "fly so close to the sun." Sonny and Cher, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor are duos featured in several television movies developed by the veteran producer.

For years, he's wanted to create a movie around one of Hollywood's most famous and scandalous couples, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. He contends and who could argue? that the volcanic emotions fueling the courtship, marriages and breakups of the on- and off-screen couple gave birth to the obsessive celebrity culture that blossomed into the tsunami of today's tabloids, paparazzi and gossip websites: "They were the first Brangelina."

Thompson has finally realized his dream with "Liz & Dick," which premieres Sunday night on Lifetime 20 months after Taylor's death at 79. But dreams can have nightmare elements.

The executive producer of the film discovered the hard way that those developing projects about celebrities flying close to the sun can wind up getting a bit burned themselv! es especially if their wingman is Lindsay Lohan, the troubled actress he cast to step into Taylor's shoes and jewelry. "Liz & Dick" is being touted as Lohan's comeback vehicle after years of substance abuse, run-ins with the law, rehab stints and antics that have all but shattered her once-promising career.

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"It sort of exploded in my face," the 68-year-old Thompson said quietly in his fashionable West Los Angeles home, his voice echoing the drawl he acquired growing up in the Mississippi Delta.

Some early reviews have roasted "Lindsay as Liz." The Hollywood Reporter called Lohan "woeful from start to finish." The Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara called the movie "a wildly graceless biopic." Other critics hav! e been mo! re forgiving.

Lohan's notoriety and the concept of her portraying one of the most beloved actresses in film history are the X factors that Lifetime hopes will bring a massive audience to the film, which costars Grant Bowler as Richard Burton. The cable network, jointly owned by Disney and Hearst, has struck gold in previous years with female-oriented low-budget films about fashion maven Coco Chanel and