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Tara Reid
wasn't in the best of moods when she met
the press to talk about her latest
film, Van Wilder. Clearly upset,
Reid has often been the victim of
tabloid journalism, much of her own
doing. There was her much-publicised
break-up with TV host Carson Daly, not
to mention her involvement in an
incident in New York when she was
partying with Manhattan celebrity
publicist Lizzie Grubman, just hours
before Grubman slammed her Mercedes SUV
into a crowd of club-goers, seriously
injuring 16 people. As the tabloid
writers take careful aim at the American
Pie star, Reid admits to having no time
for us members of the press. "I don't
like them and I'm pissed off, especially
right now," she exclaims in no uncertain
terms. It's tough, she adds, being in
the media spotlight. "You want to be
human, you want to be nice, you want to
be normal and honest. Then they take
your words, they spin 'em and you're
dying. The whole world knows your
business, it sucks and you have no
personal life left then you get targeted
as a poster child party girl or you get
targeted as being in places you've never
even been to or hooking up with guys you
don't even know. It just blows," she
says, waving a copy of a tabloid mag
featuring the actress on the cover of
the magazine. The article in question is
'My Love is Carson Daly.' "I'm pissed
right now and I want to call them on the
phone. I cannot have that be in the
title, like I want THAT to be on the
cover. That is so behind me. I want to
just get over it. Anytime someone breaks
up with someone, you want to get over it
and move on. It's been a year, it's
behind me, now it's time to move on. I
don't want to be reminded of it. Now
everybody's gonna look at me like, 'Oh,
poor girl.' "
Reid also
denies recent press reports which had
her and pop icon Britney Spears sitting
at the bar in a public lobby getting
drunk together and crying. "That whole
Britney thing is just bullshit. I was in
Mexico." Reid craves her privacy, but
she also wants the media to become more
responsible, she says angrily. "People
need to start talking about my work,
too. They act like I've never even been
in a movie or something. I've done 15
movies so I work a lot more than I
party. I don't even care about that.
Then, if I'm out, all of a sudden now
I'm throwing cake. Or I'm right here at
the Four Seasons Hotel in LA, but I'm
really at the L'Ermitage. You know what
I mean? It's just getting to a point
where it's just stupid. If you are going
to write something, at least say the
truth or don't say it. It's just hurting
me."
Reid
relaxes more when discussion shifts to
the work she speaks of. Herb latest work
is in the farcical comedy Van Wilder,
the latest in the long-running National
Lampoon films. Ryan Reynolds plays Van
Wilder who might be starting his seventh
year at Coolidge College, but graduation
is the furthest thing from his mind.
Armed with a personal assistant and a
coterie of admirers, Van has reached the
status of living legend on campus,
throwing bashes that make geeks popular,
raise money for charity and generally
"inspire the uninspired." But when Van's
father refuses to pay any more of his
son's tuition bills, Van must turn to
party planning for profit in order to
continue living in under-graduate bliss,
thereby becoming the subject of an
exposé by disapproving school journalist
Gwen Pearson (Reid). For Reid, who found
success in the likes of American Pie,
doing another teen comedy was not a
risk, the 27-year old actress insists.
"I don't think it's a risk at all. I
play the straight girl, which is
probably good for me right now. She's a
journalist, which I wanted to play
because I do in that story what they did
to me, except I, at the end, make it up.
The first time I write a bad story about
him. I know it's gonna sell and it does,
it's big, it's the cover and everyone's
making a big deal about it but I pegged
Van wrong. Then I redeem myself and I
write a good article." In the film, Reid
explores an ambitious side to this
character, which the actress feels "was
very important to me, because it was a
big part of what I am going through
right now."
Born in
the small New Jersey town of Wyckoff,
Reid recalls her initial love affair
with the movies. "As a little kid I
would sit in the mirror and make faces
and when I would cry I'd watch myself
cry. I was just fascinated imitating
people and making up stories to see if
people would believe them. If they did I
was excited. Acting is my escape, my
getaway. my therapy and my boxing bag.
Without that, I would go crazy." It's
that need to escape that will help the
actress put to rest the media intrusion
into her private life. "I just need to
get back to work and go somewhere like
France. I need to do a movie like 'Lord
of The Rings', and spend three years in
Australia; that would be perfect for me.
Sign me up now and find me a period
piece for 17 years somewhere; I'll be
just fine," she concludes smilingly.
National Lampoon's Van Wilder opens
Friday
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