Tina Fey has been one of Lindsay Lohan’s biggest champions ever since they did Mean Girls together. Tina wrote/adapted Mean Girls and she took a supporting part in the film, which Lindsay starred in. Years passed, and with every cracktastrophe Lohan finds herself in, she’s always identified as “the ‘Mean Girls’ actress.” And as the years passed, Tina Fey has continued to prove herself time and time again as one of the great comedic writers and actresses of her generation, and a true role model for young women.

Over the past few years, Tina has taken to “mentoring” younger female comedians, to mixed results. Fey is one of Olivia Munn’s biggest supporters, promoting Olivia’s talents in interviews and even speaking on Olivia’s behalf to producers and directors. The problem? Olivia Munn isn’t all that and it feels like Fey is wasting her efforts on someone who is not only unworthy, but who is actually a standard-issue dumb famewhore with minimal talent. Speaking of, let’s get back to the Cracken. When I first heard that Lindsay had gotten the SNL gig, my first thought was, “Tina Fey pulled some strings for Lindsay.” Tina just refuses to admit that the talented young actress she worked with years ago is now a violent, arrogant, entitled crackhead mess (who has used up all of her “second chances”). The NYDN has a report on just how much Tina Fey was doing behind the scenes to help Lohan:

Tina Fey couldn’t be there for Lindsay Lohan’s “Saturday Night Live” comeback. The comedy goddess — who cast LiLo in her 2004 movie “Mean Girls” and has since functioned as a one-woman cheering section for the trouble doll — was conspicuously absent from the 25-year-old actress’ return to NBC’s fabled Studio 8H.

Although one source familiar with the situation says the “30 Rock” creator declined Lohan’s personal invitation to witness her performance, Fey’s spokeswoman says, “Tina was committed to doing the monologue with Lindsay but both of her children got sick.”

“She was unable to participate as planned,” the rep adds.

An insider says Fey was well into a draft of an opener that would have featured her and Lohan but had to unexpectedly pull out of the broadcast. Oddly enough, Lohan’s monologue was the strongest part of her “SNL” performance, but Fey’s spokeswoman could not give us an answer as to whether any of the lines that LiLo spoke were crafted by the former “SNL” head writer.

While Jimmy Fallon and Jon Hamm appeared on-camera with Lohan and Paul Rudd cheered on the actress from the green room, Fey was not in the house.

Her absence sparked murmurs that, after years of defending Lohan, she’d finally washed her hands of the actress, who’s desperate to make a comeback after years of bad behavior.

In October 2010, during an appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” Fey told host Andy Cohen: “(Lindsay’s) so great, and such a beautiful girl,” adding, “I hope she gets well.”

When Lohan first hosted “SNL” in May 2005, Fey went so far as to take part in an intervention with “SNL” Executive Producer Lorne Michaels and others who were concerned about the then-rising star’s hard-partying lifestyle.

LiLo talked about the confrontation in a February 2006 Vanity Fair interview.

“They sat me down literally before I was going to do the show, and they said, ‘You need to take care of yourself,’ ” Lohan told the mag. “ ‘We care about you too much, and we’ve seen too many people do this,’ and I just started bawling. I knew I had a problem and I couldn’t admit it,” Lohan said.

As we reported on Monday, despite telling “Today” anchor Matt Lauer that nightclubbing “was not my thing anymore,” Lohan partied past 4 a.m. at Chinatown hotspot Le Baron on Friday morning. She returned Sunday morning after the “SNL” after-party at Kibo.

Although Lohan — who was hosting “SNL” for the third time — got mixed reviews for her performance, the show brought in the time slot’s highest ratings of the season.

Lohan’s spokesman said he had “no idea if Lindsay invited Tina Fey” to watch her perform.

[From NY Daily News]

I think the fact that Tina’s rep even came out with an excuse for why Fey wasn’t there proves that Tina is still in Lindsay’s corner. I feel the same way about this as I do about Robert Downey Jr’s continued support of Mel Gibson. I admire Tina’s (and RDJ’s) incredible loyalty to a friend, but please don’t ask me to accept that Lohan (or Gibson) has “changed” or that they’re “sorry” for their past actions. It feels like Lindsay is exploiting Tina’s friendship and loyalty, and at the end of the day, Tina could and should find worthier talents to foster, mentor and promote.

Here are some new photos of Lindsay looking busted and shopping at Barney’s. Shouldn’t she be getting back to LA to finish up her morgue duty? Look at the way she carried herself – she’s like the crackie Gloria Swanson. She’s ready for her closeup, Lorne Michaels.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.