“Guess how old I am,“ Lindsay Lohan’s manager and sometimes publicist, Scott Carlsen, demands. Though I’d seen the tender-cheeked cherub smiling in the upper left-hand corner of Lohan‘s Snapchats, or working on his phone, I didn’t offer a guess.

Carlsen is 25, with the pore-less skin of youth and a clean-cut haircut that would be the pride of the country club for any grandparent. For the past nine months he has been by Lohan’s side, traveling the world, planning her birthday party, and, most notably, firing off a series of e-mails about her whereabouts, all with the goal of cutting through the negative noise on the Internet with the good news of one Lindsay Lohan. Now 31 years old, and four years removed from her last major film role, Lohan is still a tabloid fixture . . . in part thanks to Carlsen’s tireless efforts to present her every move as press release-worthy, and evidence of a long-awaited comeback, for real this time.

“LINDSAY LOHAN IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER WITH A NEW TV SHOW - LEAKED HERE,” read one subject line in March. “Check out the 55 million pound Chakra yacht Lindsay Lohan celebrated Ramadan on,” came in May. (Yes, it would seem Lindsay Lohan celebrates Ramadan.) Still one more, from just earlier this month: “Lindsay Lohan celebrates a calm 31st birthday in Mykonos at intimate party with some of her best friends and manager“—that is, Carlsen himself. (A follow-up e-mail included answers to questions sent by “someone“ that Carlsen “wanted to share with everyone.“ Among them: “Why did she opt to have a quiet birthday gathering instead of a blow-out bash? She wanted to have something low key just fun with close friends no stress just good times :).“)

Carlsen, who had previously worked with the Norwegian DJ Kygo, met Lohan backstage at a London concert about two-and-a-half years ago, around the time Lohan was starring in a West End production of Speed-the-Plow and musing about staying in London forever. “I really don’t dream that often,” he shared on a recent phone call. “But this night I had this vivid dream and it was me and Lindsay and we were jogging through Hyde Park, and she was back on top of the world. Biggest movie star ever again, and I was managing her.”

A few years later, he and Lindsay ran into each other in Amsterdam and she convinced him to head back to London. Since around October he’s been by her side. They‘ve traveled together in Lohan’s cul-de-sac as of late: London, the south of France, Greece, Turkey, and Dubai. When we spoke, he hadn’t been home (which is Boulder, Colorado) in months. Two weeks ago, they celebrated her 31st birthday in Mykonos together. He commissioned a cake for her modeled after an Italian Riva yacht, her favorite. There was, of course, a press release about it.

“She was seen thanking the staff, dancing with friends, eating, laughing, and thoroughly enjoying herself in a mature, calm manner on a beautiful beach,” it read. “Recently she announced a new TV show [Sick Note] with Don Johnson, Rupert Grint, and Nick Frost but we hear she has a new movie lined up that will start filming at the end of the year as well.”

Carlsen wants what any manager/publicist would want: to spread positive news—about his client. But his client is Lindsay Lohan, one of the great aughts tabloid sacrifices who barely made it out of 2007 intact. Her ups and downs are storied. In the summer of 2016—right before she and Carlsen started working together—she broke up with her former fiancé, the reported Russian real-estate mogul Egor Tarabasov. For a while, the relationship seemed to indicate the star was settling down, but their breakup and eventual public fight became tabloid fodder once again. Lately on Twitter, she’s defended Donald Trump (a man whose tangles with the media clearly look familiar to her). In the midst of it all, Carlsen stays—again—positive:

“The press today focuses too much on negativity. All day Fox News, CNN, all these different media outlets, it’s all these negative stories all the time. I know people want to know some information, but I don’t think constantly talking about negative things—.” He stops, then continues: “I think people would rather read positive stories and be happy.”

So what positive-minded person wouldn’t want an update like this one, from May: “Between charity galas and flying in helicopters to events, Lohan was spotted jet skiing around the boat, tanning, and teaching mediation [sic] classes on the upper deck . . . Some of the friends she invited over included Jeremy Renner, Pamela Anderson, Adrian Brody, and Selma Hayek [sic].”

Is it working? Well, Refinery 29 announced her Preemium lifestyle site by noting that she “seems to be in a great place.“ Her general well-being has been noted in Page Six, a place not generally known for reporting on equanimity. Carlsen hasn’t succeeded in turning the Internet into less of a cesspool, but he has gotten his cheery Lindsay updates out into the world. Until gossip rags find fodder to indulge their more critical sides, Carlsen is allowing them to give into the other, utterly American impulse: to always be rooting for Lindsay Lohan.