Late Sunday morning (or late last night in Switzerland) Deadline‘s Nellie Andreeva posted one of the most transparently ludicrous positive-spin stories I’ve ever read on Deadline or anywhere else. It could be 100% factual and it’s still bullshit because it was told to Andreeva in order to make Lindsay Lohan’s latest erratic episode (i.e., she couldn’t be woken up, leading an assistant to call 911) seem understandable or palatable. Running such a story without inserting at least a slight tone of skepticism immediately called Andreeva’s judgment into question.

It was basically a tale about two people from the hair department on Liz & Dick leaving the production due to “exhaustion” and “severe dehydration.” The story was almost certainly fed to the gullible Andreeva was to suggest that it’s not just poor Lindsay Lohan who’s been victimized by the slave-driving demands of Liz & Dick director Lloyd Kramer — it’s everyone! The entire crew is being affected! They’re dropping like flies! Partly because the production refuses to provide water bottles to the crew, resulting in dehydration!

We were hiking yesterday afternoon and early evening for about five or six hours, and I could think of little else last night except crashing. Andreeva’s story almost roused me out of my slumber when I read it around 10 pm or thereabouts. It’s 7:54 am now, or around 11 pm L.A. time.