Lindsay Lohan went viral on social media in the early hours of Friday. Only this time, it wasn’t about her transgressions.
The actress, who is as well known for her legal troubles and stints in rehab as she is for her roles in Disney’s Freaky Friday and Parent Trap, weighed in on the global financial panic over Brexit in dozens of tweets posted through early on Friday morning.
“good luck with the pound.. will take you about 15 years to get it back up #REMAIN instead,” Lohan tweeted to 9.3 million followers as sterling began to plummet and markets came to terms with the fact that British voters had decided they wanted their country to leave the European Union.
Reuters counted at least 31 tweets in two hours before the former child star, who has taken up residence in London for a West End production of Speed the Plow, deleted her anti-Brexit rants on Friday morning.
Lohan wasn’t the only celebrity to flaunt economic insights on social media. Jose Canseco, the retired All-Star baseball player who tweeted loudly against Brexit in the days leading up to the vote, posited on the currency’s fall.
“Pound is sinking faster then the Spanish Armada. Hug for u Great Britain,” Canseco tweeted as sterling fell as much as 12 per cent off its Thursday night high.
As the sun rose in the United Kingdom and the BBC declared that Brexit would win the day, some of the country’s top talent expressed all manner of devastation.
“I truly believe this is one of the most devastating things to happen during my lifetime. I felt a fear I’ve never felt this morning,” tweeted singer Ellie Goulding.
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling tweeted: “I don’t think I’ve ever wanted magic more.” Model and actress Elizabeth Hurley, however, appeared to sleep soundly on Friday morning. A photo posted to her Twitter account @ElizabethHurley about an hour after the BBC declared a Brexit shows her asleep next to her dog with the caption “Sweet dreams,” the hashtag #Brexit and emojis of a champagne bottle and Union flag.
Ahead of the vote, Hurley had urged Britons to vote “Leave” by posting a photo of herself on social media wearing only a Union flag.
The momentous decision for Britain revved up internet searches and social media usage.
According to Google Trends, the search term “what happens if we leave the EU” surged by 250 per cent at around midnight British time, nearly two hours after the polls had closed.
On Twitter, more than 3.5 million tweets from around 9pm ET on Thursday (5am UAE time on Friday) to 5am ET on Friday had the hashtag #Brexit. The sentiment on those tweets was evenly split, according Amobee Brand Intelligence, a marketing technology company.
During the Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation speech on Friday morning, Twitter usage in the UK was double its normal levels, with about 13,000 tweets per minute.
