Lindsay Lohan’s stage mom, who isn’t content to have thrust just one of her offspring into the deep murky waters of Hollywood without a life preserver, has predictably spoken out about her daughter’s grimy imitation of Marilyn Monroe in a series of topless photos. She calls it art, and sees no problem with her daughter’s nude poses. She also says that Lindsay’s 14 year-old sister, Alli, was on set at the time, and that Lindsay was thankful that someone asked her to bare it all:

“It was very tastefully done,” Dina tells PEOPLE of the photos, a recreation of Marilyn Monroe’s legendary 1962 photo shoot shot by Bert Stern. “I respect the photographer as an artist, so I look at them artistically. For him to call Lindsay 46 years later and to say can you recreate these photos is an honor. I looked at it as art, and as Lindsay doing a character. So I don’t look at them like it’s Playboy; she was being a character. So if you look at it that way, you can look at it as a mother.”

And Dina adds that had the photos been inappropriate, Lindsay’s sister Ali would not have visited the set. “Trust me,” Dina tells PEOPLE, “I wouldn’t have sent my 14-year-old to the set [if the shoot was in bad taste]. And obviously Lindsay wouldn’t do anything with her sister there, that was risqué.”

Lindsay, 21, also viewed the shoot as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Dina tells PEOPLE.

“Lindsay was very excited when she first got the phone call,” says Dina, 45. “Of course we talked about how they would be done. Lindsay said, ‘Mommy, I’m never going to get this opportunity to do it again.’ She was very thankful she was asked.”

[From People.com]

You can see where they’re coming from, since the picture were done by the same photographer that shot Marilyn’s last drunken photo series just six weeks before she died. It’s truly an honor to bare your breasts in memory of Monroe, and you should see it as a way to give back to the fans who aren’t content just seeing your shaved mons in an occasional paparazzi photo.

MSNBC’s The Scoop column quotes some industry insiders who see Lohan’s nude photo shoot as a piss poor career move, with a director saying “her stock falls when she starts doing any project for any magazine.” MSNC’s Sexploration columnist says that “21-year-old Lohan’s attempt to inhabit the 36-year-old (and vastly more complicated) Monroe’s eroticism seems pale, shallow, out of context,” and “[Her]… spread in New York magazine seems more sad commentary on our current bankrupt culture than it does on Lohan.”

It may have been “art,” but it was still nearly full-frontal nudity. There’s nothing wrong with that, and Sienna Miller has posed topless for magazines too, but it doesn’t seem like it helps your career if you want to be taken seriously as an actress. But don’t listen to what the experts have to say, go by what your mom tells you. She’s expertly guided you this far.