This Tara truly hopes that tomorrow is another day

Tara Reid is out to prove she’s a great actress, not just a party girl. “I think there must be a journalist school where students are taught how to kill Tara Reid,” the 29-year-old says.

“The one thing I want to say about American journalists is: why is partying and having a good time bad?” asks Reid. “And how come someone who gets messed up or is a junkie or gets DUI’d and goes to rehab is considered a hero again?”

She’s also still living down a wardrobe malfunction on the red carpet at Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ 35th birthday bash last year.

“People act like it was the worst crime in the world,” she says. “It was a mistake, you know! But you would think my boob had popped out and shot Gandhi!”

Reid, whose screen credits include “My Boss’s Daughter,” “American Pie” and “Van Wilder” – not to mention E! television’s “Taradise” – has fired her publicist and is looking for more meaningful work.

“I need one more great movie role so they say, ‘Wow, she can act! She’s a great actress.’ Then I think they’ll leave me alone,” she says.

Sounds like a hard cell to us

Rapper Lil’ Kim, who’s finishing her second week behind bars on perjury and conspiracy convictions, says her fellow inmates are “all cool people.”

“I want all my friends, family and fans to know that I am in good spirits and I will be fine,” says Kim, aka Kimberly Jones, adding that she’s working on her “personal development.”

Says her entertainment lawyer, L. Londell McMillan: “I was amazed at just how good Kim looked on my two visits to see her in prison last week. Even in a jumpsuit, Kim still has the style and swagger of a star.”

Her new CD, “The Naked Truth,” dropped Tuesday.

The straight skinny from Lindsay

Confirming what her critics have been saying all along, teen actress Lindsay Lohan has acknowledged that she got dangerously thin earlier this year.

The usually red-haired 19-year-old became the focus of gossip in May, when she showed up to promote her Disney comedy “Herbie: Fully Loaded” as a blonde and looking like a shell of her former self.

“I was going through a rough time, and I probably wasn’t taking care of myself – I wasn’t,” says Lohan, who has gained back some weight. “I want to encourage young girls to not get to that point.”

Wheels of fortune

Jay Leno‘s celebrity-autographed Harley-Davidson motorcycle has raised nearly a half-million dollars for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The winning bid for the bike on eBay was $505,100, Leno announced on Thursday’s “Tonight Show.” Ninety-five percent of that will be donated to the American Red Cross for Katrina relief efforts.

Thursday’s final signers were Matthew McConaughey, Angie Harmon, Jimmy Smits and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Previous names included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Billy Crystal, Reese Witherspoon, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Garner and Pamela Anderson.

Quoteworthy

Actress Gabrielle Union, on returning to television in a remake of the ‘70s cult TV series “Kolchak: The Night Stalker”: “I really didn’t want to do TV, but my options film-wise were literally this actress’ best friend, and like somebody’s wife who you’d see twice.”

The birthday bunch

Actor James Whitmore is 84. Pianist Roger Williams is 81. Actor Tom Bosley is 78. Actress-singer Julie Andrews is 70. Actress Stella Stevens is 69. Actor Randy Quaid is 55. Actor Esai Morales (“NYPD Blue”) is 43. Model-actress Cindy Margolis is 40.