The classiness that is Fergie thinks we should go easy on Britney and Lindsay. She says they need time alone to deal with their issues and get better – and that’s completely true. But they’re not doing that. Well I guess Lindsay is a little bit, only because she’s at the point where it’s rehab far away or jail. Though she’s still been out and about, supposedly even stopping by a convenience store to buy beer while in rehab. Britney has been out partying pretty much every night for the last year or so. It’s ridiculous. If they want some privacy and to get better, stay home! Go to rehab! The problem with Britney is she’s given no indication that she wants to get better or that she even realizes anything is wrong with her or her life. So it’s good advice in theory, but the change has to start with the famous person, not with the general public for watching the famous person.

“Fergie – no stranger to tabloid attention – says she can relate to what Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are going through. And what the 20-something stars need, says the 32-year-old Black Eye Peas singer, is some breathing room so they can help themselves. ‘They’re young,’ Fergie (real name: Stacy Ferguson) said at a Fashion Rocks event in New York. ‘I was young when I went through my stuff. Leave them alone. If they want to get better, they’re going to get better on their own.’

Spears, 25, has returned to Los Angeles to rejoin her sons, Jayden, Sean Preston, who are respectively turning 1 and 2 this week, after a disappointing comeback performance Sunday at the MTV Video Music Awards in Las Vegas. Earlier this year, she spent a month in rehab. Lohan, 21, is in her third rehab program, this one in Utah, following her DUI arrest last month, for which she was sentenced to a day in jail. In a statement, she said she was addicted to alcohol and drugs and had relapsed.

Fergie, whose own time in rehab was for a crystal meth addiction, says that Spears and Lohan should ignore the media attention and focus on their problems. ‘If somebody is going to change, they have to want to do it themselves,’ she says. ‘I think it is really unfair to them when they are trying to get help. We’re all watching as a nation and commenting day by day on their rehabilitation. It’s not fair. You’re supposed to have a sanctuary, a place where you can go and not be pressured every day.’”

[From People]

If Britney and Lindsay want sanctuary, they need to go find one. It’s not everyone else’s job to make one for them. I don’t give her credit for much, but at least Lindsay Lohan has been laying low in rehab. She’s gone out a bit, but nothing like before, and she (or one of her handlers) was smart enough to go to a rehab away from Hollywood. These girls have major problems, and neither of them seem to really understand that. They don’t like the consequences – jail, bad headlines, crappy performances – but don’t seem to realize that in order to get those things to stop, they have to stop. Go somewhere far away and get your head and your life together. Most people can’t afford to do that, but both Lindsay and Britney are uniquely lucky that they can. Take advantage.

Picture note by JayBird: Here’s Fergie - looking like a hot mess as usual - promoting her new line of handbags at Macy’s last Wednesday. Images thanks to PR Photos.