After a rough year, Liza’s looking for better luck in 2005

There’s a stack of unframed, poster-sized photos on Liza Minnelli‘s dining room table, including a 1946 image of her as an infant, swaddled in blankets and embraced by her famous parents.

“Do you see the love that these two people gave this baby?” she said, picking up the picture of herself with mother Judy Garland and father Vincente Minnelli. “Well, that love is never going to be in vain.”

In a lengthy interview – her first since a two-day December stay in a hospital psychiatric unit – Minnelli acknowledged that an onslaught of troubling personal news at the end of last year led her to drink, triggering a 4 a.m. fall in her Upper East Side high-rise.

Minnelli, 58, characterized the Dec. 27 setback in her lifelong battle against alcoholism as brief, and called it a painful end to an “embarrassing” year.

“My whole life, this disease has been rampant. I inherited it, and it’s been horrendous, but I have always asked for help,” she says. “And it has never, ever affected a performance or stood in the way of my work.”

The hospitalization capped off a year to forget for Minnelli, one which saw the “Cabaret” star in the tabloids over continued legal wrangling with estranged husband David Gest and her former bodyguard, M’hammed Soumayah.

Soumayah’s claims in a $100 million lawsuit that Minnelli abused him and forced him to have sex with her left her “bewildered and terribly hurt.” She has countersuits pending against both men.

Despite her personal problems, Minnelli’s career is simmering, thanks largely to a guest turn on the Emmy-winning comedy “Arrested Development.”

On the big screen, she plays a sex therapist in the upcoming “The Oh in Ohio,” opposite Parker Posey.

But closer to Minnelli’s heart is an effort behind the camera: She’s written a screenplay, a story with music that will be brought to life by “Chicago” film producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. She won’t divulge details, but plans to spend much of the year in Los Angeles developing the project.

Several albums also are planned this year, including “The Godmother and the Goddaughter,” a collection of the work of Minnelli’s godmother, Kaye Thompson, the former head of MGM’s music department and author of the “Eloise” books.

Those childhood tales are said to have been based on young Liza’s adventures at the Plaza Hotel.

One thing Minnelli doesn’t have in her life right now: a relationship. And she doesn’t want one.

“Have you gone bananas? Are you nuts?” she said, with her trademark breathlessness.

“I see myself working and being with a group of friends who are supportive, loving, kind and thoughtful. That’s what’s solid.”

The birthday bunch

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is 88. Actor Rip Torn is 74. Actress Mamie Van Doren is 74. Former NBC news anchorman Tom Brokaw is 65. Singer Fabian is 62. Singer Natalie Cole is 55. Actor Barry Miller (“Saturday Night Fever,” “Fame”) is 47. Singer Axl Rose (Guns N’ Roses) is 43.