Lindsay Lohan wants to visit troops in Iraq

Actress Lindsay Lohan wants to entertain U.S. troops in Iraq and follow in the footsteps of her idol, Marilyn Monroe. Lohan is seen in Hollywood, California June 27, 2006. (Phil McCarten/Reuters)



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan wants to entertain U.S. troops in Iraq and follow in the footsteps of her idol, Marilyn Monroe, who visited soldiers in Korea during the 1950s. But first, Lohan plans to learn how to shoot a gun.

"I've been trying to go to Iraq with (U.S. Senator) Hillary Clinton for so long. Hillary was trying to work it out, but it seemed too dangerous," Lohan, 20, told Elle magazine in an interview that hits newsstands on Wednesday.

"I wanted to do what Marilyn Monroe did, when she went and just set up a stage and did a concert for the troops by herself," Lohan said. "It's so amazing seeing one woman just going somewhere, this beautiful sex kitten, who's basically a pinup, which is what I've always aspired to be."

A spokesman for the former first lady, now a New York Democrat expected to make her own bid for the White House in 2008, said Lohan had expressed an interest in going to Iraq.

"It was suggested to her that if she really wanted to, she could pursue doing so through the USO (United Services Organization)," Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said.

Lohan, whose film credits include "Mean Girls," "Herbie Fully Loaded" and "A Prairie Home Companion," said she already has plans to prepare for a possible visit to Iraq.

"I'm not afraid of going," she said. "My security guard is going to take me to a gun range when I get back to L.A., and I'm going to start taking shooting lessons. He says if I'm going to go there I should know how to shoot."

Lohan's interview comes a little more than

a week after she was publicly chided by film producer James G. Robinson, who accused her of failing repeatedly to show up for work on time during the shooting of her latest film, "Georgia Rule."

Lohan's representatives had said the actress had been taken to the hospital for treatment of heat exhaustion.

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