Scene queen can’t escape life of drama
Subkoff survives brain tumor
SHE was the “It girl” of the late ’90s, an Edie Sedgwick-like Manhattan party fixture and budding actress palling around with friends like Chloë Sevigny, Scarlett Johansson and Natasha Lyonne.
Her three-year relationship with director Wes Anderson was said to be the inspiration for the “Hotel Chevalier” short, starring Natalie Portman, that accompanied his 2007 film “The Darjeeling Limited.”
Then Tara Subkoff changed careers, co-founding the edgy clothes line Imitation of Christ, and became an overnight icon known for her guerilla-style fashion shows, which were at least as much performance art as they were about her refashioned, hand-sewn vintage clothes.
The pixieish blonde relished her reputation as the provocateur fashionista, who once made editors walk the runway while the models sat on the sidelines jotting down notes.
Then it all went wrong.
In 2009, Subkoff was diagnosed with a golf-ball-sized brain tumor. The high-risk craniotomy to remove the growing tumor left her deaf in her right ear and with a dead balance nerve (she still experiences vertigo) — all of which she says could have been avoided if she hadn’t been misdiagnosed for six years as nothing but a neurotic New Yorker suffering pounding headaches.
Last year, a recuperated and more spiritual Subkoff was finally back on the scene in a big way, beaming at the biggest industry party of the year — she was on the arm of “King’s Speech” director Tom Hooper, 39, after he took home the Oscar for Best Director.
The power couple, who met at the Golden Globes, appeared to be settling down together after getting engaged in Paris last May.
But in January, Hooper broke off their engagement just days before Subkoff found out she was pregnant with their first child.
Friends said the former party girl was “distraught” about the end of the relationship and the ex-couple is trying to figure out how to move forward.
“Being a survivor teaches you that time is precious,” Subkoff told The Post recently over scrambled eggs and herbal tea. “The past three years have definitely been an interesting ride.”
SUBKOFF — whose dad owned an antique store on 13th Street and whose mother taught kindergarten in East Harlem — attended boarding school in Massachusetts.
In college, she dropped out of art school after one year to study acting in Los Angeles.
“I was fascinated with being a character actress,” she said of her early goals. Fellow aspiring thespians in her first acting class in 1992 included then-unknowns Keanu Reeves and Angelina Jolie, who co-starred with Subkoff in a short film.
“I played the ugly cousin, and [Angelina] was the pretty one,” Subkoff