Entertainment

Mandy Moore lets her hair down

Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore (WireImage)

Will someone please tell Mandy Moore that she’s a former child star and should be in rehab — or at least jail — by now? Somehow, despite long odds, Moore remains wholesome, without a hint of a scandal, career meltdown or leaked sex tape in sight.

The closest she’s come to making waves is admitting that “So Real,” her first album — released in 1999 when she was 15 — was “just awful,” then giving an $8 refund to a radio host who regretted purchasing it. But that’s more cool than scandalous.

And to make matters worse, the pop-star-turned-actor’s latest role is the cleanest in all of filmdom: a Disney princess. She provides the voice of Rapunzel in the recently released “Tangled,” a 3-D animated take on the classic fairy tale.

Man, what’s a tabloid reporter gotta do to get this girl to crack a bottle over Britney Spears’ head in a bar fight? Give us something, please.

“It makes me feel lucky to have a strong support system,” Moore tells The Post, talking about the recent meltdowns of other former child stars. “I had Mom and Dad traveling with me at a young age, and they were concerned for my welfare. That’s why I’m able to do what I do.”

Moore decided she wanted to be an entertainer after seeing “Guys and Dolls” when she was 6. As a teen in Orlando, she recorded a demo and came to the attention of Epic Records after a friend of a label exec overhead her singing at a studio.

A series of slick, radio-friendly pop hits followed, including “Candy” and “I Wanna Be With You.”

As she grew up, however, Moore began to chafe against her good girl image. But instead of having a meltdown, shaving her head and acting out, she rebelled by attempting to produce more substantial work.

“I wasn’t happy, and I don’t think [the record company] was particularly happy,” she told New York magazine last year. “I wasn’t interested in going into the studio and singing about shoes and boys and, you know, dealing with whatever hot producer-of-the-week they wanted to have me work with.”

Last year, she released “Amanda Leigh,” a mellow, acoustic record she co-wrote that was clearly meant to mark a departure from her pop princess past.

“People see me as a sweet person and I’d much rather people say that of me than anything else,” she has said. “But it has its limitations. I’d rather people say, ‘Wow, she’s an actress and musician’ than ‘Oh, she does all those cute movies.’ I need to challenge myself so people will say, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that. Cool.’ ”

One thing people certainly didn’t expect from Moore, 26, was her choice of husband. After dating nice guys, including Zach Braff (and a couple of not-so-nice guys, like Wilmer Valderrama), Moore chose to settle down with alt-country indie rocker Ryan Adams, 36. The two, on paper at least, couldn’t be more different.

He opened for Oasis last year, while she once opened for the Backstreet Boys. He’s admitted to “snorting heroin a lot — with coke,” while she calls the club scene “too much.”

Is it a classic case of opposites attract? “No. Not at all. That’s just the easy way out. Nah,” Moore says dismissively. “Like in ‘Rapunzel,’ we have more in common than originally meets the eye.”

The two were hitched in March 2009, and the fact that they’ve made the union work suggests that Moore has more layers than her public persona. The couple, Moore has said, are “homebodies,” who enjoy hiking, seeing movies, shopping and doting on their dog, Joni.

They also share a common passion for music. Moore says she and Adams sometimes jam around the house, and they’ve been known to perform together on rare occasions.

“There’s always music happening at the house in one way or another, whether it’s being played or written or listened to,” she says. “It’s nice to be able to connect on that level.”

Also around their LA home are classic video games. The couple has a mini-arcade. “We have Galaga, Defender, Asteroids,” she says. “When men come over to the house, that’s immediately where he takes them. Then they’re lost for hours.”

This appreciation for video games helped persuade Moore to take a voice role in an upcoming “Tron” animated TV series. Adams is a big fan of the original 1982 movie, and the pair owns one of the original “Tron” arcade machines.

For now, Moore’s focus is on “Tangled,” in which a long-tressed princess leaves her tower and sets off on adventures with a charming thief (Zachary Levi from TV’s “Chuck”). Moore says she won the role, in part, by singing Joni Mitchell’s “Help Me” during an audition.

“Any excuse to sing Joni Mitchell is OK by me,” she says.

During production, Moore was initially disappointed that she wouldn’t be working opposite the other actors, but she got over it. The solitary work seems to have had no effect on the product.

“I’ve been doing press with Zach for the last couple weeks, and everyone is like, ‘You guys have such great chemistry together,’ ” Moore says. “We’re like, ‘Um, thank you? We’re meeting for the first time right now, but thank you.’ ”

Moore admits that the days spent alone in a studio actually turned out to be more fun than she thought.

“I found it cathartic and fun to be by myself and do every sort of imaginable line reading and not have to worry about embarrassing myself, especially all the goofy sounds you have to make,” Moore says. “It was like, ‘OK, today we’re just doing effort sounds. We’re going to get a lot of you running and jumping around and getting chased by thugs.’ ”

When she later saw the finished project, she wasn’t exactly thrilled — by her own performance, at least.

“I thought, ‘Oh, God. My voice is shrill and nasally, and I’ve ruined the movie.’ It’s like when you hear yourself on the answering machine.”

On the plus side, there is the possibility that she might one day get turned into an amusement park ride. This is Disney, after all. “That is the coolest thing ever!” Moore squeals.

And it sure beats having your life turned into a cautionary after-school special. Leave that for the starlets.