Actress Tara Reid (American Pie) found herself in a very bad scene this week: she collapsed in the lobby of a Chicago hotel and was rushed to a hospital.
TMZ published video from those moments, showing people trying to help her and seat her in a wheelchair as she shouted and mumbled incoherently. Minutes later, paramedics arrived and took her on a stretcher to the ambulance waiting outside.
The person who filmed the video told TMZ she yelled, “You don't know who I am. I'm famous, I'm an actress!”
Reid, 50, spoke to TMZ on Monday and said: “I got to the hotel, checked in and went downstairs to have a drink and smoke a cigarette. I ordered a drink and left it at the bar. I went outside to smoke, and there were some YouTubers in the lobby filming things. It was weird. I went back in and my glass was covered with a napkin. I thought that was strange because I didn’t put it there. I drank from it and didn’t even finish it, I just passed out. The next thing I remember is being in the hospital, eight hours later.”
Asked whether she underwent drug or alcohol tests, she said: “No, they just told me I’d been drugged. ‘They drugged you last night at the bar.’” The interviewer pressed: “That’s odd, because if you arrive unconscious at a hospital, they’d normally test you to know how to treat you.”
Reid replied: “I don’t know, because I was unconscious, so I don’t know what they did. Everything is hazy. I can’t explain because I don’t know exactly what happened. There was someone in the room watching over me, and she was Mexican. At first, I thought I was in Mexico because she didn’t speak English and I didn’t understand what was going on. I was very confused. Then my agent came, took me to a signing event and we left. After that I went home.”
She said she filed a police report and added: “It’s really scary. I’m just glad I was in a public place and there were security guards who helped me. Because if this had happened somewhere else, you could be assaulted, anything could go wrong.” She stressed that she had only one drink: “Definitely, just one glass of wine. I don’t drink hard alcohol or anything like that. Just a glass of wine and a cigarette.”
A representative for the 50-year-old actress later told the Daily Mail: “Tara Reid has filed a police report after an incident in which she believes her drink was tampered with. She is cooperating fully with the investigation. Tara is recovering and asks for privacy during this traumatic time. She also urges everyone to be careful, watch your drinks and never leave them unattended, as this can happen to anyone. She will not be making further comments at this stage.”
Reid starred in several of the biggest late-’90s hits, including the American Pie films, The Big Lebowski, Urban Legend and Cruel Intentions, but her roles dwindled afterward, and those she did land were in far less prominent films.
She has said that the “party girl” image attached to her in those years damaged her career: “I didn’t get into trouble, I didn’t drive drunk or do anything wrong. I felt the studios and many others treated me like a target and judged me unfairly.”
Reid has also dealt with past addictions and said in 2009: “Rehab saved my life. Before that I would think about tomorrow and hate it. Now I look forward to it because I’m clean and sober and excited.” In 2004 she said she had a combined liposuction and breast augmentation surgery that went wrong: “Even though I was thin, I won’t lie — I wanted abs. But everything went wrong and my stomach became protruding and bloated.”
In recent years, she enjoyed something of a resurgence thanks to the Sharknado movies, the goofy but wildly popular TV films that became an American sensation and helped revive her career.
Beyond the disturbing hotel incident, it was also reported earlier this month that she and her partner, music producer Nathan Montpetit-Howar, 43, had split after six years together. Friends of the actress told the Daily Mail she ended the relationship after realizing “he was not a good influence on her. She’s not sitting at home crying, she’s in a good place now.”