And I Thought This Only Happen In The UK

$95 is all that it is going to cost Tatum O'Neal for her drug bust. Instead of the charges she was facing, Tatum plead guilty to disorderly conduct and will pay a $95 fine and attend a total of 8 hours in a drug treatment program. $95 is less than the money she spent allegedly buying the damn coke in the first place.

Look, I can understand if someone gets busted for a first offense that you want to give them a second chance, or maybe even a third. Maybe. But Tatum has had her chances. If this had been any of us, we would have been screwed for sure. What about the guy who allegedly sold it to her? What do you think is happening to him? You think he would jump up and down if his attorney got him the same deal. Hell yes he would. Unfortunately it is a little tough to jump up and down when you are in ankle shackles.

What lesson did Tatum learn here? Hmmm. Her book sales which had been floundering jumped so she made more money from that. She learned that it is probably wise to make her alleged coke purchases in a more private setting or to have someone do it for her. She also learned that she still has some celebrity left. Now that the matter has been settled, look for that People Magazine cover story about how this has changed her life and how she is going to write a new book about people who are struggling with life and make even more money off the bust.

CDAN

Tatum O'Neal Busted

Sources told The Post the 44-year-old actress - who became the youngest-ever actress to snag an Oscar, at age 10, for her role in "Paper Moon" - was arrested by detectives from Manhattan South Narcotics near East Broadway and Grand Street.

"I'm Tatum O'Neal," she told the arresting officer. "Can't we forget about this?" according to one source.

The suspected drug dealer also was arrested, the sources said. Both were hauled into the 7th Precinct and were expected to spend the night in custody.

O'Neal lives in a building at East Broadway and Canal.

"She's cool - it's the last thing I thought would happen," said a security official at her apartment building. "I'm shocked."

O'Neal, who has three grown kids with tennis bad-boy John McEnroe, wrote in her 2004 memoir "A Paper Life" that boozing and drug-taking was in her DNA.

Mom/actress Joanna Moore was an alcoholic and hooked on amphetamines even as she was riaising Tatum and her younger brother Griffin in Los Angeles.

"My own young life had eerily echoed Addiee's [her character in 'Paper Moon'] even though my mother was still alive," she wrote.
"In the grip of addiction, she had virtually abandoned me and Griffin, leaving us in squalor - as well as beaten and abused by the men in her life."

Tatum took to the wild life early and hard, though she completed addiction rehab in 1996 and claimed to be clean.

But her acting career was in tatters. Last year, she began a comeback,however, landing film and TV roles, including the alcoholic shrew Maggie, sister of Denis Leary's firefighter Tommy Gavin on "Rescue Me."

In an interview last year, she said she felt sorry for celeb-wreck Britney Spears, saying things started getting better for her when she left LA.

"I was thrust out there as a little kid. It was hard to cope," she told columnist Liz Smith. . "I used to walk with my head down. I was involved with drugs and alcohol. I had a lot of shame and self-hatred.''

NY Post