WWW- TARA Reid is bordering on a breakdown now that her E! show, “Taradise,” has been officially canceled and other offers of work have dried up, her friends say.

The “American Pie” star – who has fired her publicist and moved back to New York – had a “complete meltdown” Wednesday during a rambling interview for Chaunce Hayden’s Steppin’ Out magazine, Hayden tells PAGE SIX.

Reid’s voice cracked, and she sounded on edge as she told Hayden:

“How many more years are [the media] going to pick on me? There’s other new young bad girls. Move on to someone else! . . . 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 . . . If I’m going to try and do something, it has to happen this year. I’m not stupid.”

Reid was recently photographed being helped out of a club as her denim skirt rode up, revealing a sadly out-of-shape derriere. Hollywood insiders say she has gained at least 15 pounds and will have to undertake a fitness regimen before she gets parts.

But Reid blames the media.

“People think [I am just a party girl], and it’s bull[bleep],” she ranted to Hayden. “I wish they would just tell the truth. I’m not a drunk . . . I don’t have a drinking problem. I don’t have a drug problem, for sure.

“Listen, if I could get good movies, you would never see me going out. But when there’s nothing to do, what am I supposed to do, just sit in my house and go crazy? But going out is not all I do.

“I’m just fed up. I just want a chance again. I want to show that I am an actress . . . I just wish a director would believe in me.

“The gossip reporters know the truth. They know they could write good things about me. They could write I’m a good person who is cleaning up her act. I am getting older, and I want different things in my life. I want to get married and have kids.

“I’ve had a million publicists, and they’ve done nothing for me . . . Publicists are supposed to fight for me and believe in me, and they don’t do that. They don’t!

“I thought ‘Taradise’ was going to help me . . . I wanted to show the whole world the truth – I’m fun . . . But do I think it was cut like that? No. It could have been a better show . . . I didn’t want to look like a total party-girl drug retard. I think the shots they show aren’t fair.”