HOME IMPROVEMENT: Lohan shops for Bravo makeover show. (Deano /Splash News)
Lindsay Lohan’s upcoming appearance on the Bravo home decorating show “Million Dollar Decorators” has blossomed into a p.r. nightmare for the cable channel.
The cash-poor star — whose bank accounts were frozen last week by the IRS — agreed last year to appear in a two-part episode in exchange for receiving more than $200,000 in furnishings for her rented Beverly Hills home.
But when Lohan, 26, kept the freebies and did not show up to shoot for the big reveal, Bravo opted to bury the episode on New Year’s Day, when most viewers are tuned elsewhere.
Now, it appears, the network is distancing itself even further from the troubled star.
In a prepared statement, Bravo confirmed yesterday that Lohan “was not available for the reveal shoot, but we were still able to capture the outcome, just like we do for many of the reveal episodes.”
In an interview yesterday, celebrity interior designer Kathryn Ireland — whose clients include Steve Martin and Julia Louis-Dreyfus — told The Post that Lohan approached her at a New Year’s Eve party last year and asked to be on the show.
“I didn’t know who she was when I met her,” Ireland says. “It was only when she said to her sister, ‘Wouldn’t you love a mother like her?’ that I thought ‘How rude’ and turned to someone and [asked].”
In the first of the two episodes, Ireland appears to have little knowledge of her client’s famous legal troubles.
“Google Lindsay Lohan,” she asks her teenage son, Oscar, at the beginning of the episode. “I just want to know what movies she has been in lately.”
“I don’t think she has been in any movies recently,” he replied.
In the episode, Ireland arrives at the rented $8,000-a-month, gated mansion in Beverly Hills shortly after Lohan moves in. She is escorted to the master bedroom which had almost no furniture — except for a four-post bed with a mirrored headboard.
Dozens of handbags and shoes are neatly arranged on the floor.
“I just moved in so I am still sorting everything out,” Lohan says. “I feel safe here. That is the most important thing.”
Lohan tells Ireland she wants her new look to be “very princess-y” and together they set an initial shopping budget of $250,000.
“You have very expensive taste, darling,” Ireland says.
During a trip to Kreiss, a high-end furniture retailer on trendy Melrose Avenue, Lohan appears startled by a throng of paparazzi — who Ireland said yesterday were called by the store owners.