Tina Fey planned Mean Girls reunion with Lindsay Lohan on SNL

Comedienne Tina Fey was forced to scrap plans to reunite with her Mean Girls co-star Lindsay Lohan on Saturday Night Live at the weekend (03Mar12) after her children fell ill.

Fey penned the Mean Girls screenplay and portrayed the teacher bullied by Lohan's character in the teen film, and she had hoped to give the troubled actress a boost when she returned to host the TV sketch show for the fourth time.

But the 30 Rock star, a former SNL regular, had to axe the appearance at the last minute.

A representative for Fey says, "Tina was committed to doing the monologue with Lindsay but both of her children got sick. She was unable to participate as planned."

Lohan willingly poked fun at her legal woes and drug problems on the program, but her struggle to remember lines caused many critics to attack her for her mediocre performance.

SNL comedians Taran Killam and Bobby Moynihan have already come to Lohan's defense and now actress Zooey Deschanel has also expressed her sympathy for the troubled star, insisting the hosting job is harder than it looks.

Deschanel, who fronted a recent episode of SNL, says, "It's so hard... I thought she did a really good job; everyone reads off cue cards. There were some people saying, 'She read off cue cards!' Everyone - the cast members, the host - everyone reads off cue cards. That's how it's done, because they change the script right before, so you have to read off cue cards."