EVEN when she has nothing to promote, we've sure been seeing a lot of reformed wild child Lindsay Lohan.

Maybe too much, this time.

Bloggers and Hollywood commentators have been giving their two cents worth on her recent risque nude photoshoot, in which the voluptuous starlet recreates Marilyn Monroe's famous 'Last Sitting' photo-call by renowned photographer Bert Stern in 1962 - taken six weeks before Monroe died of an apparent drug overdose.

Lohan appears topless and shows off her bare bum in the updated pictorial spread - also lensed by Stern - which appears on the cover and inside the latest issue of New York magazine.

Reviews of the controversial images have been mixed, with some industry watchers arguing whether it was appropriate for someone who's still recovering from a dark history of drug and alcohol addiction and drink-driving arrests.

After all, it's only been less than a year out of her third go at rehab.

Other critics have skewered both Lohan and Stern, saying Lohan posing as Monroe is a degradation of the memory of the legendary film icon.

In her blog on the Los Angeles Times website, columnist Monica Corcoran wrote: 'Stern should be ashamed of himself for aping such a memorable photoshoot for a 21-year-old actress whose most notable credit is Herbie Fully Loaded.'

EGossip.com called the photos 'a desperate plea for publicity'.

Mr Robert Peters, president of Morality In Media, said: 'Some people can be expected to buy the publication just to see how low a mainstream magazine and Hollywood starlet will go for the sake of notoriety.'

Even the New York Times joined the debate, calling the images 'macabre', 'sexual' and 'funereal'.

'The pictures ask viewers to engage in a kind of mock necrophilia,' columnist Ginia Bellafante wrote in a scathing article.

The newspaper added that the celebrity fashion shoot has increasingly become 'a vital tool in recasting a tainted or too-staid image', but that Lohan blew it.

Ms Bellafante wrote: 'Ms Lohan could have seized this moment to rebrand herself - a few pages in which she would be costumed to look like Margaret Thatcher.

'But here, all she manages to accomplish is to remind us of her tendencies toward self-destruction.'

Yet, there were others who felt that unveiling her assets could possibly be one of the smartest moves Lohan makes at this critical juncture, as it's the shortest route back to the top and will at least restore some buzz.

After all, even award-winning actresses like Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Sharon Stone and Diane Lane have stripped their way to success.

Lohan, who has never done a nude scene on film, even when playing a stripper in her Razzie-winning box office flop I Know Who Killed Me, is now unemployed in Hollywood.

Since completing a stint in rehab last year, she has filmed the tango-themed romance Dare To Love, but it has stalled due to financial troubles.

She is due to start work alongside comedian Jack Black on a new romantic comedy, Ye Olde Times, in April.

The New York Post wrote: 'Now that she has signalled a willingness to reveal her happy pillows, producers are bound to start calling her.'

IT'S A HIT

At least one party is happy: the pictures seem to have paid off for the publisher.

They have created such an Internet buzz that New York magazine's website crashed, Reuters reported.

Its online traffic soared 2,000 per cent - a record for the weekly rag.

It received around 20 million daily page views for its Lohan photo gallery over the first three days.

The average daily page view in January was 1.2 million.

Forbes.com calculated that based on the magazine's published rate card, the extra traffic generated would be worth over US$500,000 ($700,000), although its website may have negotiated different rates.

The magazine's spokesman Lauren Starke revealed that Stern earned the standard fee for such assignments, while Lohan was not paid at all.

Lohan's father Michael told Us Weekly: 'I'm not going to look at the photos - that's my daughter!

'Lindsay is an adult, and she knows the direction she wants to take her career. It's her decision.'

Manager-mother Dina approves of her daughter's exposure, believing it was the opportunity of a lifetime - for which a nervous Lohan did 250 crunches the night before the session.

Dina told People magazine: 'I respect the photographer as an artist, so I look at them artistically. It was very tastefully done.'

'For (Stern) to call Lindsay 46 years later and to say, 'Can you recreate these photos' is an honour.

'I don't look at them like it's Playboy; she was being a character. So if you look at it that way, you can look at it as a mother.'

Dina added: 'Trust me, I wouldn't have sent my 14-year-old (Ali) to the set (if the shoot was in bad taste).

'And obviously Lindsay wouldn't do anything with her sister there that was risque.'

Even after the pictures started creating a global ruckus, Dina continued to defend Lohan's participation, claiming they 'had no idea it would blow up like it did'.

She told Daily Telegraph: 'She's an artist and is back on her feet and working. She's on the cover of a respected magazine. How can that be a bad career move? It is not!

'She was just doing a project connected to someone near and dear to her heart.'

However, Dina admitted that she wasn't pleased when New York magazine recently released additional photos of Lohan - leftover from the shoot - on its website to capitalise on the burgeoning reader interest.

She said: 'I had no idea about the outtakes. That's the one part of it that I'm not thrilled about because the photos in the magazine are what, from an artistic perspective, were meant to be out there.

'But you can't control that stuff. I'm just happy with the finished product.'

This article was first published in The New Paper on Feb 25 2008.