TMZ Shamed Lindsay Lohan into Showing Up at Court

Surprise, surprise: LiLo appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom today! But not without apparently being dragged there by way of the public court of online tabloid opinion.

After Lindsay Lohan's last fraught dealings with the Los Angeles court system, she was scheduled to appear in court today. And surprise, surprise: She did! But not without apparently being dragged there by way of the public court of online tabloid opinion. Yesterday TMZ reported that LiLo's new lawyer, Mark Heller, gave her judge documents that said Lohan had an upper respiratory infection and was too sick to fly to Los Angeles to make the date. But the notorious celebrity news vultures found photos of Lohan shopping and smoking in New York's SoHo neighborhood on Saturday, the same day she was supposedly examined for the infection.

The folks at TMZ, of course, patted themselves on the back last night, saying that their story, which explained how the judge could issue a warrant for Lohan's arrest if she failed to show, scared her so much that she decided to get herself to Los Angeles. (When she got there, she and her mom, Dina, were apparently turned away from the fancy Santa Monica hotel Shutters on the Beach, but that's just a kind of depressing aside.)

In court this morning, after Heller brought up Lohan's apparent sickness, Judge Stephanie Sautner said  "I'm glad to see you're feeling better." Lohan responded quietly: "Thank you."

Lohan's court appearance today has to do with that car accident in June and the story she apparently made up in explaining it to the police. Earlier this month she fired her longtime lawyer—who she reportedly now wants back, according to TMZ—and is now being represented by Heller. The case is due back in court March 1 for a hearing and the trial date is March 18.