DRIVEN TO SUCCEED IF YOU READ THE TABLOIDS, THEN YOU DON'T KNOW LINDSAY LOHAN.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Writer

Lindsay Lohan is applying ice wrapped in a hotel towel to her smarting legs.

``By the way, all my bruises are hideous, but it's from the accident, just so you know,'' the 18-year-old pop-culture phenomenon explains. ``They're kind of all over.''

Well, from a discreet distance, they're not so ``hideous.'' But Lohan feels the need to explain a lot these days, and who can blame her?

A few days before this interview to promote her new Disney family movie, ``Herbie: Fully Loaded,'' paparazzo Galo Ramirez crashed his minivan into Lohan's Mercedes-Benz as she tried to make a U-turn near the Beverly Center shopping mall - and fellow paparazzi snapped pictures of the traumatized star when she emerged from the vehicle. Police arrested Ramirez, 24, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

``All I could think was, 'My door is jammed, I'm gonna die!' '' says the actress/singer, who shot from child star to the gossip industry's favorite teen when her movie ``Mean Girls'' and album ``Speak'' hit it big last year. ``Then I did get out of the car. And they continued to take my picture! I said, 'What are you doing?' I was in shock, I did not know what to do.''

It doesn't take Lohan long to recover, though. By the weekend, she was hosting an MTV Movie Awards after-party (her ``Mean Girls'' role copped the best female performance prize) and doing ``Herbie'' publicity well into the evening of the following day. Still energetic and articulate by late Sunday, Lohan hardly seemed any the worse for wear.

Except for that obsession with the rumor-obsessed media, whose unwanted attentions she repeatedly tried to counteract - in a consistently nice and often witty way.

``I'm a very honest person,'' says Lohan, looking noticeably slimmer than she appears in the movie, though far healthier than the wasting-away party whippet that tabloids relentlessly imply. ``I feel like I'm very sincere, and I don't take anything for granted. I feel blessed and lucky, and I'm appreciative and I'm thankful, and I'm not some crazy, Tara Reid- esque party girl. I want to be in this for the long run.''

Though the media circus predominates now, Lohan actually has a good shot at winning that marathon. She judges her career moves more carefully - and, so far, with more commercial savvy - than any teen star since her idol Jodie Foster. Plus, unlike a number of peers, Lohan is really talented.

Uh, OK. We are talking about a young woman who's just made her third Disney family remake. But childish as they were, ``The Parent Trap'' and ``Freaky Friday'' were highly demanding, multilayered assignments for any actress, let alone a young one. And smart as it was, ``Mean Girls'' would not have worked without Lohan's likable charisma.

More to the point, how many actors can effectively co-star with a scene-stealing Beetle?

``It's an incredibly difficult acting challenge to actually act with a car,'' notes ``Herbie'' director Angela Robinson. ``The reason the movie is successful is that you believe she has a relationship with Herbie, which she just does so effortlessly.''

That's why all of Lohan's flesh-and-blood co-stars hated her! No, that's a joke. Once again, Us magazine, that's a joke.

``She just has it, she's got that kind of spark where you just want to watch her,'' says Breckin Meyer, who plays the race car driver brother of Lohan's aspiring NASCAR contender in the film. ``She's charismatic and talented, that's kinda it. She also has a photographic memory, which (ticks) me off as an actor. She learns her lines like that,'' he says, snapping his fingers. ``It drives you insane.''

For any In Touch stringers who may be reading this: Meyer was smiling when he said that - and said it facetiously.

``I have this weird thing, since I was a kid - I think that's how I got through 'Parent Trap' - and I don't even understand it,'' Lohan says of her excellent recall. ``My dad's the same way, he just looks at something and he kind of remembers it right away. But yeah, I just look at the lines and I can do the scene. It's very strange.''

It says something about Lohan that the one mention she makes of her father is a neutrally positive one. Estranged from Lindsay, her younger siblings and her manager mother Dina, former financial trader Michael Lohan has wrestled with substance abuse and been arrested on several charges during his daughter's year-plus ascent up the star chart.

That's actual news. But when Lindsay was hospitalized during the production of ``Herbie'' last year, it launched a thousand speculative stories about whether she was following in her father's footsteps.

Or had an eating disorder.

Or whatever.

``I also, supposedly, had breast implants at the time,'' Lohan says with a snarky smile. ``Which I must have gotten taken out? Tell me about it.''

Lohan says it was a simple case of exhaustion.

``My first album was rushed; I recorded practically every song in my trailer on the set of 'Herbie','' she says. ``That's why I got sick at the time. I was running myself down; I was literally running from set, in between setups, and singing. I would go home and record in my bedroom, too.''

That forced break gave Lohan time to reassess a lot of things. Including her body image.

``When I went to the hospital, I lost a lot of weight, about 20, 25 pounds,'' says the natural redhead. ``Then my hair went blond, so they made it seem like this drastic change. But after I got out of the hospital, I said, 'I need to take care of myself. Make sure this is still what I want to do. Do I want to keep acting? Is it too much for me? Should I continue with this?'

``So, I started eating healthier and working out. You know, if it was for the wrong reasons, then I'd understand people's concern. And there's also a lot of stress that I've had to take. I'm gettin' up there!''

She laughs while saying this, Star subscribers probably need to be informed. But there's truth to the stress part. Beside the intrusive media and family crises, Lohan broke up with boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama. And she's suffered several other physical mishaps, including a VW Beetle running over her foot on the set of a ``Herbie''-themed music video.

And then there are all those judgments people make about her new blond look - which she's certainly handling better than your average 18-year-old girl likely would.

``I look like my mom,'' she says, sincere warmth mellowing her trademark raspy voice. My mom's amazing - and she's beautiful. But I love my red hair. It makes me spunkier.''

It'll go back to its original color after Lohan finishes her next movie, an adaptation of the public-radio mainstay ``A Prairie Home Companion.'' It's being directed by no less an auteur that Robert Altman (``M*A*S*H,'' ``Nashville,'' ``The Player''), and the mother of Lohan's character will be played by the greatest working actress of our time, Meryl Streep.

It's everything Lohan - who has often thought out loud that she deserves the critical respect young actresses such as Natalie Portman and Kirsten Dunst enjoy - could dream of professionally. And it follows a well-calculated move to make the movie in between, the recently completed ``Just My Luck,'' her first grown-up romantic comedy.

``There are a bunch of scripts that I'm really into right now that are completely different,'' she says. ``I want to find stuff that is close to my heart that I can do. I don't need to get paid anything - it's never been about the money. Just something that I can choose that's really gonna make me feel proud of what I've done. I like to challenge myself because I feel stronger afterward. I want to find things like that at this point.''

That, and a desire to try to present a good role model for her still-young female fan base, is why Lohan feels getting out her side of all those stories is so important.

``What I'm saying is, I don't go out that much, people just say I do,'' Lohan explains. ``They say a lot of things. The thing is, these magazines take these pictures and young girls buy them. So it leads to them wanting to get more pictures so they can sell more magazines. It makes sense from a business standpoint.

``But it hurts me because I don't want people having the wrong idea of what kind of person I am, that I'm immature and I'm not focused.''

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

Herbie gets good mileage

Here's a brief history of the movie bug who can't be crushed.

THE LOVE BUG (1968): Start of the franchise, in which the Volkswagen with the mind of its own helps Dean Jones win races and the heart of Michelle Lee. Buddy Hackett provides the rotund human comedy relief.

HERBIE RIDES AGAIN (1974): Herbie leads a mass Volkswagen protest against unscrupulous property developers. With Ken Berry and Stefanie Powers, the respected Helen Hayes and aging Bowery Boy Huntz Hall.

HERBIE GOES TO MONTE CARLO (1977): Dean Jones is back in the driver's seat for a Paris-to-Monaco rally. Crime is foiled and the German auto falls in love with, sacre bleu, a hot little French number. Don Knotts can't fill Hackett's shoes, or coveralls.

HERBIE GOES BANANAS (1980): In South America now, Herbie fights a bull. Cloris Leachman, Charles Martin Smith and Harvey Korman are along for the ride.

HERBIE: THE LOVE BUG (1982): TV series that ran five episodes. Dean Jones again, running a small driving school where No. 53 makes mischief.

THE LOVE BUG (1997): TV movie in which Herbie runs up against an evil twin. Dean Jones has a small role.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Lindsay Lohan Fully Loaded

She's all grown up and ready to take on the world - and those dangerous paparazzi

(2) no caption (Lidsay Lohan)

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(3) Justin Long (Kevin) and Lindsay Lohan (Maggie Peyton), on the set of ``Herbie: Fully Loaded.''

(4) no caption (Herbie)

Box:

Herbie gets good mileage (see text)