Save the world, save your gossip

These days, not everyone is out to “save the cheerleader.”

Playing pom-pom princess Claire Bennet on NBC’s “Heroes” (Mondays, 9 p.m.), actress Hayden Panettiere must stay in fighting form to save the world.

That’s why Hollywood’s newest “it” girl can often be found pumping iron at the celeb-friendly gym Crunch, with its brightly colored walls and hall of showers with translucent doors.

As the season reaches its May 21 climax, Panettiere says, “Claire has to make a very hard decision.

“She is put in a position of serious power – to stop (destruction) in a pretty heartbreaking way. Or not.”

Less than six years ago, Panettiere lived through a real-life nightmare scenario.

Up until this year, her family lived in New York, and her father, Skip, retired as a fire department lieutenant just six months before the 9/11 attacks.

The family mourned many lost friends.

Panettiere was left with an enriched appreciation for life. “I want to go crazy,” the 17-year-old says of her own future.

Uh-oh. With Hollywood already heavily stocked with hard-partying ingenues whose craziness has led them into rehab, could Panettiere be the next Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears or Nicole Richie?

Panettiere prefers her own definition of “crazy”: “Discovering who I am and enjoying myself. I’m not talking drugs. I’m talking about traveling the world and seeing different things. Possibly doing what Angelina Jolie does – to go over there and bring food.”

Before rolling your eyes, consider that Panettiere spent several months living in South Africa while shooting the 2005 film “Racing Stripes.” After that ended, she stayed in Africa to complete her freshman year of high school.

“It was definitely eye-opening, seeing shantytowns,” she says. “It makes you thankful for what you have, but at the same time you admire how simple life is in other places.”

But Panettiere – an “acquaintance” of Lohan and Paris Hilton – believes tabloid shutterbugs are working hard to portray her as the next out-of-control party girl.

Helping shape that image is her merlot-colored Porsche Cayenne SUV and 21-year-old boyfriend, actor Stephen Colletti, who became a reality star on MTV’s “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County.”

“Paparazzi will take pictures of me coming out of a club, and they’ll say I’m partying, that I’m drinking underage at a place I’m not supposed to be,” she says.

“But they have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. At El Scorpion the other night, I had a lime juice and Sprite, and I was looking at it thinking, ‘Somebody’s going to take a picture of this and say I’m drinking.’ So I put it down and grabbed a bottle of water.”

For the most part, Panettiere says, clubs aren’t her scene.

Having gone to parties with her look-alike mom – former soap opera actress Lesley Panettiere (“All My Children”) – she says, “I usually want to leave long before she does.”

The birthday bunch

Singer Thelma Houston is 61. Newsman Tim Russert (“Meet the Press”) is 57. Actress Traci Lords is 38. Actor Breckin Meyer (“Herbie: Fully Loaded”) is 33.