Dina Lohan : Dina Felt 'Ambushed' By Matt Lauer

Matt Lauer put Dina Lohan in the hot seat on Friday, pressing the showbiz mom to defend daughter Lohan  and address long-hovering scrutiny for the way she raise the troubled starlet. It was a tense 11 minutes of television , whith Dina appearing uneasy and even combative at times.
"Dina felt ambushed by Matt," a family friend told PopEater after speaking with Lohan. "She was surprised how many tough questions he asked."
According to our source, Lohan wanted to focus the  "Today"  chat on Judge Marsha Revel's alleged mishandling of her daugher's case, along with her take on the media's protrayal of Lindsay.
"She didn't understand why [Lauer] kept asking her those questions - she knows she's a great mother  and Lindsay will get out of rehab soon," the friend insists. "Everyone  makes mistakes, it's just that Lindsay makes it into the papers."
Lauer pressed Lohan on her parenting skills in the oft-terse interview , but she rebuffed, saying she had to let the troubled actress go through personal trials in order to emerge a better person.
"As a parent you have to let them go a little bit,"she said during the Friday Morning chat. When she went out to Los Angeles when she was 19, I had to let her live and  fall and fail and survive. Without failure, there's no success.
Dina Lohan stressed that she does not condone Lindsay's behavior -"You can't make your child not go out and go to a club and not get behind a wheel of a car" - and confirmed reports that Lindsay will be released early from rehab, but declined to say exactly when. In her chat with Lauer , the celebrity mom said her daughter was doing "wonderfully" after 14 days in jail for a  DUI probation violation.
Lauer also appeared to trip up Lohan in a discussion of how many times Lindsay has been to rehab. She insisted it had only been twice, but the actress has in fact gone four times.  Our source tells us Dina was referring to court-ordered stints (2) and not the pair of times Lindsay sought help of her own volition.
Dina Lohan also raised eyebrows when she told Lauer that she hasn't been with  ex-husband  Michael Lohan for 15 years, even though their divorce was only finalized in 2007 . Again , our source : "Yes, she has spoken to and seen Michael, but he hasn't been a father for over 15 years."
Dina Lohan cancele her other scheduled interview on Friday _ with PopEater's  'Naughty But Nice Rob Shuter' - citing exhaustion.
throughout  the interview , Dina tried to return the focus to Judge  Revel, whom she blasted for going "overboard" with her sentence and rejoiced in her recent recusal of the case.
"The judge played hardball," she told Lauer . "Lindsay  was in with alleged murderers and she's became friends with a lot of them. Lindsay rolled with the punches  and she's doing wonderfully."
Just after Dina's 'Today' show appearance, her ex-husband was interviewed on "The Early Show"  and voiced his disapproval of Lindsay's early release from rehab. "She needs help.If she's not taken off all the drugs , if she doesn't have therapy, family therapy  as well as individual, I feel it's just a Band-Aid  and it's not going to get any better," Michael Lohan said.
Michael also expressed his desire  to reconnect  with Lindsay as she continues along the road to recovery - "We have to mend fences ...This is not something we can just overlook anymore " - and  lamented his poor relationship with Dina. "I  don't understand how she comes out with some of these things she says," Michael said. "But that's on her. That's not on me . This is about our daughter. It's not about being part of her career. It's about being  parents."
Dina Lohan also said Lindsay will be moving back to New York after finishing her commitments in Los Angeles. California is "a wonderful state," she said, but "it's a different game you play there, the court system is a little different."
My spin : Of course Dina blames the judge, Dina will blame anyone but herself. She thinks the New  York court system is  more lenient, she better guess again : Especially with the Liandra's Law stuff starting on  August 15th . Hate to tell you Dina, but New York will have the stiffest DWI laws in the country......Good try  lady...I use the term lady very loosely.
Kicking back  having fun and keeping it real.