News: Tatum O’Neal Busted For Crack

“The past decade of my life has been like a white-light experience, a passage through death and a rebirth. I wouldn’t wish the experience on anyone, but maybe it was necessary, on some level, for me to nearly destroy myself in order to etch off the ugly scars — the physical and psychic — of deprivation and abuse.” — Tatum O’Neal, A Paper Life

It appears Tatum O’Neal’s healing isn’t finished. The oft-troubled Oscar-winning actress [watch a clip of Paper Moon here], 44, was arrested early Sunday evening in lower Manhattan and charged with buying crack and cocaine. Just blocks from her home, O’Neal was nabbed by narcotics detectives on Clinton St. at 7:30 pm. She reportedly said she was researching a part, then altered her story, saying she’d been clean for two years and asking, “Can’t we just forget about this?”

Her suspected dealer, Alan Garcia, was also arrested. The NY Post reported that O’Neal was carrying a pipe, though it was clean. She is the daughter of actors Ryan O’Neal and Joanna Moore, who battled a lifelong drug problem until she died in 1997. “It’s heart-breaking,” says a source who has worked with O’Neal. “She’s a loving mom and a tough woman, but she fights a lot of demons every day. I guess they got the best of her. It doesn’t make her a bad person. Just someone who needs help.”