It almost seems sad.

E! Online Tuesday offered parts of an interview with Lindsay Lohan in which the young actress sounds off on recent stories in the celebrity media that have her out of money, out of work and out of a relationship with Samantha Ronson.

She complains: “If people would just leave my personal life alone — because it’s really not that interesting— then I could land a great role, but all the sicko fans and the noise is so distracting.”

She asks: “”If people would just stop judging me and accusing me and making me out to be this aloof, spoiled, ungrateful and unprofessional person that I am not and could never be.”

She pleads: “You have to make mistakes to learn so that you can grow up and live your life the right way. Things happen, and you have to move on, be strong and believe in yourself. It would be really nice if people would believe in me.”

Why sad? There is no doubt it’s not easy being hounded by the paparazzi and having your every move in a relationship scrutinized daily. But isn’t that what celebrities ask for when they seek stardom? Really? Sure they want the glamour and glitz, but with that comes the media glare. It always has, and celebrities know it.

Lindsay also says “”I just want to live the dream that I’ve worked so hard for since I was 4 years old. I’ve been through a lot in my life, and there are many things I’d like to do to let people know that they just have to be strong… I’d like to have my own charity, do work overseas, be in Oscar-nominated films, write movies, produce movies/shows/videos, design clothes, make music, write books, etc.”

She adds, “I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs and I don’t lie” and “My past is my past and it’s been a long one, but I’m growing more and learning more day by day.”

Is it time to give young Lindsay a break and, as she asks, believe in her?

There’s an appropriate bleakness to first album in four years, and her first as a tabloid figure rather than a vibrant teen idol. The hazy-eyed bump-and-grind of her “Gimme More” MTV Video Music Awards performance fits all this material: It’s defiant like a bad drunk, uncomfortably oversexed and more at home in a seedy after-hours club than a celebrity ultra-lounge. The music ranges from shockingly minimal—”Piece of Me” and “Radar” have the synth fugues and smudgy bass of current underground electro and little else—to novelty pop, like the J.J. Fad-styling of “Freakshow” and Gwen Stefani-ripping snare march of “Toy Soldier.” Spears is threatening or seducing, or both, on every track. This is still pop, but the last bits of Spears’ song-and-dance girl veneer are cracking, along with the rest of her public persona. —Kerri Mason