Tara Reid credits cookies and JEDWARD for getting her through ‘crazy’ 2020

Tara Reid has credited snacks, work and Jedward with getting her through the ‘crazy’ year of 2020. 

In an exclusive chat with MailOnline, the 45-year-old actress discussed her novel way of coping with the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown – hanging out with the Irish twins who soared to fame on the X Factor.  

Tara – who has partnered with celebrity shout out app Thrillz to provide personalised messages for fans – also revealed that she’s just like the rest of us as she discussed her newfound penchant for eating cookies and candy in quarantine. 

She quipped: ‘We ate so much because we nothing else to do… and the twins eat more than anyone, it’s insane! We’d have to get so much food in. 

‘You just want to eat for no reason, I never eat candy but I was craving it. Cookies, I was craving them, and something sour, so the weirdest stuff.’

Tara was isolating in unconventional circumstances, living with her boyfriend Nathan Montpetit-Howar and singing twins John and Edward Grimes, 28 at her home in Los Angeles. 

The media personalities forged a close friendship with Hollywood actress Tara when they all starred on Celebrity Big Brother in 2011.

Describing their quarantine bubble as ‘crazy’, Tara explained, ‘They were only here for two weeks then left, so two weeks were fine. They kept me entertained for sure!’ 

Revealing how boyfriend Nathan coped with her friends, she admitted: ‘It was definitely a crazy dynamic but he loved them too! 

‘We’d watch movies together, we’d hang out and eat, John would be off playing guitar. we’d be working, we did our own thing!’ 

Speaking about the year, she mused: ‘It humbles you. It makes you realise who should you be in your life, who shouldn’t be in your life, and you appreciate yourself a lot more…

‘I just hope that everyone is saying safe and doing the best they can, and if they need something call a friend as this has been really hard for everyone.’

With Tara’s increase in self-awareness, she has also learnt how to deal with trolls, with the actress insisting that she no longer pays attention to any jibes.   

‘It’s definitely not nice,’ she mused, ‘but it’s part of the game. When it used to happen it would hurt my feelings but now I don’t really care. 

‘I don’t take it to heart, it’s just people being mean for no reason. You get to you see a lot more love on the internet now!’ 

And Tara doesn’t have any time spare to focus on trolls anyway, as she’s been working on a number of exciting work projects that have kept her focused in quarantine. 

One of these projects, won’t be, however, the hotly anticipated Tiger King movie, based on the Netflix series that went viral in lockdown.  

The Big Lebowski star was rumoured to be portraying Carole Baskin in an upcoming movie about the notorious big cat owner, with fans going wild over the news. 

However, Tara poured cold water on the reports, confessing: ‘I don’t think so! I don’t know how that rumour started. It went crazy! Who knows… but they’re not casting!’  

Fans of the Hollywood star will be delighted to know, however, that she hasn’t ruled out another turn in the cult franchise, Sharknado. 

The horror comedy films – which imagined a world where shark-infested tornadoes wreaked havoc on citizens – catapulted Tara to another level of fame.

Back in 2018, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time, seemed to wrap up the series as the team travelled back in time to prevent sharknadoes from ever existing. However, Tara is open to filming a prequel. 

She mused: ‘You can ever say never… but I’m pretty sure we have done as much as we can with sharks.’

For now, the actress revealed that she is swapping her turn in front of the camera for a stint behind it, as she explained that she has teamed up with Empire actress Vivica A. Fox to produce and star in Masha’s Mushroom, a suspense thriller.

‘I love it!’ she enthused. ‘It’s so different to acting. There’s finding the financing, the actors… there’s so much that goes into it. It has kept me really busy and it’s really exciting’.  

Tara is also keeping busy as one of many Hollywood stars who work with Thrillz, a site that allows fans to commission personalised video messages from celebrities. 

Speaking about her work with the site, she explained that she loves working for the ‘really fun platform’, as it makes people ‘feel good’.

She added: ‘It’s a fun thing to help people. Some things can seem weird as they’re   inside jokes but it makes laugh! And some of the things they say are so sweet, it’s great when people can’t see each other.’

You can request a video from Tara, or a number of other stars, at www.thrillz.co.uk