Tara Reid is one of those names we haven’t heard circulated in Tinseltown for a while. We all know her as Kevin’s girlfriend Vicky in American Pie, the 2000s movie we obsessed over — or watched in secret, depending on our age at the time — but where did Reid go after that?
While we associate Reid with the 2000s, much like low-rise jeans and Legally Blonde, she actually started acting in the late 1980s. After catching up on Reid’s career and the hard times she’s experienced, we’re definitely going to want to rewatch the American Pie movies.
What happened to Tara Reid’s acting career and personal life?
While we might think we haven’t seen Tara Reid in a movie since the American Pie franchise, that’s not actually true. Despite her reputation for starring in bad movies, she’s been acting since forever and has made it clear in interviews that she truly enjoys the work.
After American Reunion was released in 2012, Reid kept racking up those film credits, but their titles are not as well known. Do The Hungover Games, Ouija House, or Party Bus to Hell ring a bell? Although she has been a familiar face in Hollywood since she played Bunny Lebowski in The Big Lebowski in 1987, none of these other films have done the star any favors. It’s definitely quite a jump from that critically acclaimed drama to random movies no one talks about. Of course, she also starred in the Sharknado franchise, which no one can take seriously.
Since whenever we hear of Reid she seems to be in rough shape, we’re all curious about what’s going on with the once-famous superstar.
As Entertainment Tonight reported in an exclusive 2012 interview, Reid found her “party girl” reputation “frustrating,” saying, “It [bothered me] that [people thought] I was just a party girl and thought I wasn’t anything else because that wasn’t true…It didn’t make sense to get punished for having fun. I never got in trouble or got a DUI or do anything bad really. So I feel like it wasn’t right. I felt really bullied by the studios and a lot of people and very misjudged.”
While we might try to separate our personal lives from our work, it’s much harder to compartmentalize when you’re famous. The conversation about Reid’s love life and the problems she’s dealt with have overshadowed any interesting movies she’s starred in. As she told Mr. Warburton Magazine in 2023, she believes her access to quality roles has been affected by being unmarried and not settled down with a family. “I think, in Hollywood, if you don’t have kids or you’re not married, you’re judged,” she said. “So they still think you’re that party girl from 40 years ago.”
According to The List, Reid spent time at Promises Treatment Center in 2008 due to a drinking problem. This was also around the time she was nominated for Razzie Awards for — admittedly terrible — movies such as My Boss’s Daughter and Just Married. But while we might sit back and laugh at the type of films that get such honors — or dishonors? — we can admit it would feel pretty crummy to receive those nominations.
Did Tara Reid get plastic surgery?
One of the biggest questions tossed out there about Tara Reid is whether she’s ever received plastic surgery. People talk about how different she’s looked over the years, and we can admit we’ve had similar thoughts.
Not only has the actress gotten plastic surgery a few times, but she’s also talked about how badly it went for her. While we might watch the reality series Botched in horror, it really is awful to deal with something so visibly obvious as a botched surgery. According to Today, in 2006 Reid told Access Hollywood she was humiliated over the breast implants she received when she was 28 years old because they looked “very irregular like a goose shape egg.”
Also in 2004, Reid underwent body contouring, and, as a result, her stomach looked super strange. In an interview with Us Weekly, she said it affected her job prospects because her stomach looked “ripply” and “bulgy” — two words we never really want to hear.
Where is Tara Reid now?
Tara Reid is still acting, and in 2024, she played President Olivia Wallace in Air Force Z. In 2023, she got some attention for competing in the Fox reality series Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, which kind of sounds like a parody, right? The eclectic cast included celebrity chef Tyler Florence, Britney Spears’ little sister Jamie-Lynn Spears, and beloved Scary Spice, Mel B. While people have been harsh toward Reid for years now, she told Us Weekly that once they got the chance to see her on the — somewhat terrifying — reality series, “fans have been much nicer.”
Reid is currently 48 years old and has her own production company called HiHappy Films. Reid shares memories and updates about her career on her Instagram account, which, as of this writing, has a pretty low following of only 320,000 followers.
As for her love life, her relationship with longtime boyfriend Nathan Montpetit-Howar has been going strong since 2019. In the past, Reid dated NFL quarterback Tom Brady and television host Carson Daly, the latter of which ended in a failed engagement in 2001. Maybe things are finally looking up for Tara Reid.
