Lindsay Lohan’s appearance in the new Mean Girls remake has earned her a hefty payout for her troubles – even if she only had to spend four hours on set to shoot her surprise cameo.

Lohan, 37, had her fame guaranteed for life in 2004 after she played the lead role in the original Means Girls film as Cady Heron, the new girl in school who finds out the hard way what seeking attention and popularity can lead to.

The Freaky Friday actress returned to her Y2K roots as she appeared in the new musical adaptation of the film in a math competition scene.

Her short and swift appearance in the film, which was released in cinemas last week, was reported by Variety to have landed the star US$500,000 ($814,072).

Lohan’s depiction of Cady in the original film is reported to have only earned her US$1 million ($1.63m), double what she earned for her cameo.

To compare her workload, Lohan spent two months filming the original back in 2003, while her cameo only needed her to be on set for four hours. Therefore, it seems that the cameo would have been a sweet deal for the actress.

Mean Girls (2024) was written by Tina Fey, who also pitched the idea, wrote the story for and starred in the original 2004 film. Lohan’s original character Cady is now played by Angourie Rice, an Australian actress, while the “queen bee” of the school, Regina George, has Renee Rapp taking over Rachel McAdams’ character.

At the New York City premiere of the new film, Lohan appeared beaming following her arrival from her home in Dubai as she walked the red carpet alongside the fresh new faces of Mean Girls.

However, she later revealed that a joke made within the new film left her “very hurt and disappointed” as it related to a personal experience.

 

A representative for Lohan said that the use of “fire crotch” – an insult that oil company heir and socialite Brandon Davis hurled at the actress in the early 2000s – did not sit well with her.

The scene in question relates to one where Megan Thee Stallion appears as herself to give support to Cady (Rice), who sports red hair for the movie in a nod to Lohan’s original character.

“Okay, so somebody sent me this look and I was like, ‘Hot girls, we are going back red, Y2K fire crotch is back,” says the rapper.

When Lohan watched the scene during the film’s premiere on January 8, she was “surprised and taken aback”, according to a source.