Tatum O'Neal Arrested For Crack Cocaine Buy

Tatum O'Neal, 44, was arrested last night, in Manhattan, while buying crack cocaine a few blocks from her Lower East Side apartment. The time of her arrest was at 7:30pm by detectives from Manhattan South Narcotics unit on Clinton Street between East Broadway and Grand Street, the NY Post reports quoting sources.

According to one source, Tatum O'Neal said this to cops:

You know who I am, right? I'm researching a part. I'm doing this for a part as a junkie.

Cops found a clean crack pipe on O'Neal, at which point the actress started begging detectives:

Can't we just forget about this?

O'Neal told police that this was her first relapse incident in years and begged the cops to let her go, but they arrested her anyway. They hauled O'Neal and her suspected drug dealer, Alan Garcia, 33, into the 7th Precinct.

Daughter of actor Ryan O'Neal and actress Joanna Cook Moore, Tatum O'Neil remains the youngest actor, at the age of 10, to win an Oscar for her performance in Paper Moon.

Tatum O'Neil married tennis superstar John McEnroe in 1986. The couple had three children: Kevin, Sean, and Emily. The couple divorced in 1992. John McEnroe obtained full custody of their kids in 1998.

Check out these famous scenes from Paper Moon where Tatum O'Neal smokes cigarettes as a nine-year-old girl in this academy award winning role, co-starring with her dad, Ryan O'Neal. It's too bad she smoked in that role. But, as you can see she was a brilliant child actor.