Lindsay Lohan's provocative Playboy cover has been leaked online.

The star posed for the men's magazine last month for their January/February 2012 issue.

She was reportedly going to unveil the front of the publication on Ellen DeGeneres's talk show next week but images have somehow found its way onto the internet and botched the official reveal.

Playboy are apparently investigating how the leak happened and Lindsay's representative has so far declined to comment.

The cover image shows the 25-year-old straddled on a red Playboy logo shaped chair with just the bunny ears cover her chest. She is channelling Marilyn Monroe with her hair in old Hollywood waves.

It was reported that Lindsay had to reshoot some of the images for the magazine because Hugh Hefner and the publication's executives were not happy with the first pictures.

"Lindsay was told that the Playboy executives wanted to go another direction with her shoot so they asked her to come back for a second time," a source told Radar Online at the time.

The Mean Girls star's sit-down with Ellen next week will be her only interview to promote the magazine.

A rep for Lindsay has called the spread "absolutely fantastic and very tasteful" and Hugh promised that the pictures will be "very classy."

Lindsay was apparently paid close to $1 million for the magazine shoot which hits newsstands on December 15 2011.