Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and Lohan supposedly met through Lohan’s work with Syrian refugees — well, that or a Formula One Grand Prix race, which is basically the same thing. Either way, a spurt of reports from 2019 claim that the two were getting awfully intimate over text, and potentially even romantically entangled. “Lindsay has a lot of powerful friends in the Middle East, because she is huge out there,” said Lohan’s father in an interview with Page Six. “She has a platonic and respectful relationship with MBS, nothing more.”

A leaked itinerary from MBS’s 2018 three-week trip around the United States revealed a pit stop to meet with Oprah Winfrey in Los Angeles. Why her? “Saudi Arabia has always had a public image problem in the West because of the obvious things like women’s rights and beheadings,” said one University of Denver expert on Middle Eastern affairs, in an interview with the Independent. “When you meet with Oprah, even if you’re not going to be interviewed, you’re seeking the approval of an opinion maker.”

That same 2018 trip led MBS to a dinner party with celebrities including Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, and Dwayne Johnson, where attendees apparently avidly discussed the movie business. The site of the meal was none other than Rupert Murdoch’s lavish house in Bel Air. After dinner, Johnson posted to Facebook about his enthusiasm for a reciprocal visit to the Gulf state. “I’ll be sure to bring my finest tequila,” he wrote, though the consumption of the beverage is punishable by whipping in Saudi Arabia.