Tara Reid
Photo: Iceposter.com
Tara Reid was born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, the daughter of Donna and Tom Reid, both of whom are teachers and day care center owners. She attended Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School, then went to Ramapo High School and graduated while attending Barnstable Academy, a performing arts-centric school. Both high schools were in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey (Barnstable is now in Oakland, N.J.).
She has a younger sister, Colleen, and two brothers, Tom and Patrick (who is a twin of Colleen). Reid grew up in New Jersey. She began her career at the age of six in 1982 on the game show, Child’s Play. As a child, she had roles in a number of commercials for McDonald’s, Crayola, and Jell-O. She grew up in New York City, and attended the Professional Children’s School alongside such celebrities as Christina Ricci, Ben Taylor, Jerry O’Connell, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Macaulay Culkin. Although her breakthrough role was in American Pie in 1999, followers of the 1998 cult film The Big Lebowski already knew her as Bunnie Lebowski. Reid spent the late 1990s appearing more often on the cover of tabloid magazines than on screen. Her extroverted social life soon gave her a reputation as a party girl; in fact, U.S. magazine In Touch Weekly, recently voted Reid "top party animal". She spoofed that image with her role on the NBC sitcom Scrubs as Danni Sullivan, main character J.D.’s promiscuous girlfriend.
On New Year’s Eve 2006, at a large celebration in Chicago, Reid made several numerical errors in hosting the minute-long countdown for the year. A video of the incident circled the Internet.
Reports surfaced in October 2007 that she had been hospitalised at the Centinela Freeman Regional Medical Center as a result of alcohol abuse. Reid has denied the reports, insisting, "I’m fine." Reid was reported to have a thinner appearance in November and December 2007.
