'The Great Gatsby' Director Baz Luhrmann Says He's Praying Lindsay Lohan Can 'Bring Herself Back To The Place Where She Came From'

The Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann -- a lifelong colleague of troubled Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan -- says he's praying that she can salvage her professional career.

In a new interview, the Australian film-maker described the frequent rehabber Lohan, 26, as a talented actress who had fallen off the rails.

"I have known Lindsay since she was very young," the 50-year-old told Australian interviewer Lawrence Mooney, who hosts talk show Dirty Laundry Live on ABC2, at the Sydney premiere of The Great Gatsby.

"She's a talented girl. I pray that she can bring herself back to the place where she came from because she is a talented actress. I feel for her, I really do."

Lohan began a 90-day stay at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., in early May, a court-mandated stay in her reckless driving conviction.

It's her sixth stint in rehab and comes after she rear-ended a truck with her Porsche on Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu on June 8 last year, then lied to police, telling them she was not driving.

She entered a no contest plea in March and agreed to enter rehab, spend 18 months in psychotherapy and serve 30 days of community service.

Once hailed as one of the finest young actresses of her generation, Lohan has been unable to salvage her career from the height of its fame during the 1998 film The Parent Trap and later, Mean Girls, in 2004.

In the years that have followed, Lohan's life has become a permanent scandalous headline amid drug abuse, drinking, film flops and repeated trips in and out of jail.

Luhrmann had kinder words to say about another tabloid fixture: Kim Kardashian.

"I met her the other night, about two weeks ago," Luhrmann told the program. "I had dinner with her and Kanye at a friend's place. She's an extraordinarily elegant woman, pregnant. I was really struck by her grace."