It’s only a few minutes in to the first episode of “Living Lohan” before Dina Lohan, 45, takes on two perpetrators of tabloid fodder.

The first is a Web site that claims to have photos of Lohan’s very famous daughter, Lindsay, performing oral sex on a man, although the Web site has most of the particulars blurred out. Upon viewing the site, Dina gets on the phone and threatens legal action.

“While we were shooting, that story broke then and there,” says Lisa Berger, E!’s executive vice president of original programming and series development. “We deal with it head-on in the show. Dina is very blunt. She herself would be the one to tell you she’s the protective lioness of all her kids.”

The second involves an online story that includes quotes from Ali’s new friend and music producer, Jeremy Greene, who claims to be Lindsay’s boyfriend. “What?” says Ali in the show. “Lindsay doesn’t even know Jeremy.”

But Dina’s response to that crisis is more measured than viewers might expect: “I work with the press every day,” she says. “Not everything you read is true.”

Berger says nothing in “Living Lohan,” which takes place on Long Island where the family lives, will be what the viewers expect. That’s largely because of Dina: “A compelling reality show is about peeling the onion. People who make great reality shows have layers upon layers of complexity, and the next scene is never what you expect,” she says.

From its start “Living Lohan” shows Dina battling gossip – much of the first episode is devoted to that. When that’s not happening, Mama Lohan is trying to turn her youngest daughter Ali into the next big thing. The younger Lohan’s quest for stardom is the arc of the show. First up: cutting a pop album in Las Vegas. To get there, Dina spends her time hooking up her daughter with producers and hot tracks, and telling the whiny 14-year-old: “You are an artist. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

Lindsay, who won’t appear on the series, is a constant, but unseen, presence, while her brothers Michael, 20, and Cody, 11, make occasional appearances. Lindsay’s father, Michael, 47, who has served multiple prison sentences for offenses such as insider trading, probation violation, drunk-driving and assault, is absent from the show.

Dina also has been frequently criticized in the press for allowing Lindsay – who entered rehab three times in 2007 and also has been arrested for drunk-driving and cocaine possession – to get so out of control. Still, last month, the Long Island-based organization Mingling Moms honored her as one of the top mothers of the year, along with the mothers of Natalie Portman, Jerry Seinfeld and Eddie Murphy.

“Dina wanted to set the record straight,” says Berger. “She wanted people to see her as a fully fleshed-out mother of these children.”

LIVING LOHAN

Monday, 10:30 p.m., E!