When your career is falling apart, you're in trouble with the law, and the only time you make news these days is when you're in rehab, when you're in court, or when you show up late to your community service stint at the city morgue, there's only one thing left to do: Pose for Playboy! That's the strategy 25-year-old beleaguered actress Lindsay Lohan announced she'd be going with after the fabled adult mag offered her $1 million to strip down in front of the camera a few months back.

And while the world will have to wait until the magazine releases its January/February issue on December 15 and Lohan debuts her spread that day on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" — a pic of the cover was leaked online earlier today. As for those "tasteful" photos Lindsay's mom Dina promised, well, so far the one we've seen has the "Mean Girls" actress straddling a bunny chair with its ears covering her breasts. Not quite the definition of tasteful.

Though many may see the publicity stunt as pathetic, the starlet is actually in good company, following in the naked footsteps of successful actresses Drew Barrymore, Joan Collins, Charlize Theron, Sharon Stone, and Lohan's idol Marilyn Monroe (never mind the part where the icon died of an overdose at age 36).

Will the photo spread rejuvenate Lohan's career? Hard to say. If not, there's always Penthouse …