This year's Venice Film Festival featured appearances by the likes of George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. But one star was noticeably missing from the Italian moviemaking celebration.

Lindsay Lohan, whose new film "The Canyons" premiered at the festival, was nowhere to be found.

"She was supposed to be here today. She said she would be, but she is not," director Paul Schrader told the press during a media conference.

During the same briefing, Schrader also called himself a "free man": "For the last 16 months, I've been hostage, by my own choosing, to a very talented but unpredictable actress."

But one of Lohan's reps said she'd never insisted upon attendance.

Another source stated that Lohan had every intention to go to Venice, but an unspecified issue came up.

"She always wanted to come, but for reasons out of her control, it didn't work out," an anonymous source told ABC News. "She is very happy the film is showing."

In her absence, Lohan posted a slideshow on her website that depicted Italian style throughout the '50s, '60s and '70s.

In a recent interview with Oprah, Winfrey expressed to Lohan that going to Europe might not be the best idea.

"At the end of the interview, I said to her, 'Look, I have some concerns because I hear you're going to Europe and I just came from Europe,'" Winfrey told the folks on "Good Morning America." "Europe is the place to go if you want to feel really good and relaxed. It's very hard to go to Capri and not have a Bellini."