Lindsay Lohan and the risks of 'pre-written' obituaries

Bloggers condemned reports that newspapers had already drafted obits for the hard-living star. Turns out the practice is both common — and dangerous

Celebrity-watchers have been predicting Lohan's demise since 2008, when this mugshot was taken
(Image credit: Wikimedia)

The hedonistic lifestyle of the repeatedly rehabbed Lindsay Lohan has so frightened her friends and family, TMZ recently claimed, that they're fearing for her life. Major news outlets have apparently reached the same conclusion, reports Rob Shuter, of AOL's Pop Eater — and prepared pre-written obituaries for the 23-year-old Mean Girls star. ("We all scrambled when Brittany Murphy and Heath Ledger died and don't want that to happen again," a senior producer told Shuter anonymously.) The celebrity blogosphere has promptly erupted: "How fricking jaded do you have to be to pre-write the obituary of a 23-year old?" asks CelebritySmackBlog.com. Not very, as it turns out. Here, a quick guide to the controversial practice of "pre-writing" celebrity obituaries:

How often do news organizations write obituaries prior to someone's death?

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