I know I promised I’d back off the Amy Winehouse stories, but this is just too good to pass up. Amy is quickly going the way of Britney Spears – including being grounded like a child and monitored by her father. Amy recently admitted that she’d continued using drugs even while she was in rehab. That revelation - combined with her checking out of the hospital - caused her father Mitch to ban her from leaving the house a few days ago.

Unfortunately Amy was photographed sneaking out and jumping into a random passerby’s car. Her record label decided they’d had more than enough, and have put her on a serious lockdown – complete with security to keep her inside the house. And just as importantly – to keep others out.

Amy Winehouse has sensationally confessed to taking drugs while being treated for heroin addiction. Now concerned record label bosses have put the 24-year-old singer on round-the-clock watch in a last-ditch attempt to get her to clean up her act.

Amy admits: “I’ve never been to rehab - I mean, done it properly. I’m young, and I’m in love, and I get my nuts off sometimes… But it’s never been like, ‘Amy, get your life together’ … To be honest, my husband’s away, I’m bored, I’m young. I felt like there was nothing to live for. It’s just been a low ebb.”

…following her explosive interview with Rolling Stone magazine, music executives have got tough. We’re told: “Effectively, Amy’s been put under house arrest. She is being monitored by 24/7 surveillance to make sure she’s behaving herself and keeping out of harm’s way. There is also a security guard stationed outside her house around the clock to vet any undesirables.

From now on there’ll be no more waifs and strays - or fans - coming into her place, wreaking havoc. Crucially, they don’t want known drug dealers coming anywhere near her. Amy has to give them names of people expected. Anyone who turns up uninvited will be sent packing. It’s for her own good.”

[From the Mirror]

It’s pretty sad to hear all that, and it sounds like Amy really has no clue how far she’s fallen. Which means things will have to get a hell of a lot worse before she tries to make any improvements in her life. I can see why her record label is doing whatever they can, but frankly locking Amy up isn’t going to do any good in the long term. It’s one of the saddest things in the world, but they really will have to let her reach whatever her rock bottom is before anything will change. I can’t even imagine how low a point that must be.

Here’s Amy Winehouse’s hand – yep, that’s all we get of her. According to WENN, she “had to barter with two men for a smoke and made a deal through her letterbox to exchange an autograph for two cigarettes,” yesterday. Header of Winehouse outside her home on June 30th. Images thanks to WENN.

Tatum O’Neal is one lucky lady, at least legally. The actress comes from a long line of family members who have famously battled with addiction. The actress was busted for trying to buy crack and cocaine in early June. She subsequently claimed that she was still sober, but had almost relapsed. Oh and she thanked the cops for arresting her. And seemed to be in a fair amount of denial about the whole thing.

Instead of facing the original drug charges, O’Neal pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, and will get off with a pretty lenient sentence.

Crime may not pay, but for Tatum O’Neal, it doesn’t exactly cost all that much, either. The former wild child actress has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct stemming from her June crack bust. Prosecutors in turn dropped more serious charges, including drug possession.

To atone for her misdoing, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Elisa Koenderman sentenced the youngest ever Oscar winner to spend two half-day sessions in a drug-treatment program and pay a $95 fee.

Should the 44-year-old Rescue Me star make good on both conditions of her sentence by Sept. 4, when she’s due back in court, the case against her will be dismissed. O’Neal turned down a nearly identical deal from prosecutors last month in which they offered her the chance to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and spend two days in a treatment. No word on what caused the change of heart.

[From E! News]

That’s one hell of an easy deal. $95 bucks and a total of one day in a treatment program? How is that even a consequence? Or if you don’t want to be retributive, then how is that even helpful? $95 isn’t a punishment, and a day in treatment isn’t helpful. Essentially the court is saying, “You can get away with breaking the law” and/or “We don’t care enough about you to try to get you some help.” The courts have failed from either angle you take in terms of how drug users should be treated.

Let’s hope Tatum cares enough about herself and her family to get herself into some serious and long lasting treatment.

Here’s Tatum O’Neal at the Season Three New York premiere Screening of ‘Rescue Me’ on May 24, 2006. Photographer: Doug Meszler. Images thanks to WENN.

The new issue of Rolling Stone features a bizarre but revealing interview with Amy Winehouse conducted just before the fainting spell that landed her in the hospital. Apparently, the reporter from Rolling Stone simply waited outside the singer’s door until about 4 in the morning, when Amy invited her inside for a beer. What the reporter found inside was quite a sight, but not much of a surprise: Amy’s home was a disaster, and so was she.

All around her, Winehouse’s home is in disastrous disarray: Discarded bags of potato chips, crumpled nuggets of tinfoil, beer bottles, lingerie boxes and scattered old credit cards tell of a long night that hasn’t ended in weeks, maybe months…

For the last hour, Winehouse has been getting ready to meet the paparazzi; she’s been carefully drawing the dark, thick Cleopatra swoops around her eyes, over smudges of makeup past, her long, manicured red fingernails masking a black resin lining, her lip gloss glittering pink, foundation covering little scabs that raid her face. “What are you going to say, Amy?” I ask her from the couch where I’ve been slumped over, scratching notes for the past few hours. At 4 a.m. — after I’d spent half the night outside her apartment, hoping for an interview — Winehouse had, much to my surprise, opened the door and invited me in for beer. Since then, Winehouse has been puttering around her house in varying states of consciousness, disappearing every half an hour or so upstairs to her bedroom and returning to talk to me a little about her music, a little about her drugs and a lot about her imprisoned husband. Through it all, she’s an attentive and open hostess, boiling me tea and giving me extra slips of paper to take notes. Now, thinking about the waiting paparazzi outside, she keeps her eyes fastened on her image in the mirror.

Amy goes on to say that she doesn’t really think she has a problem with drugs- she thinks she’s just young, bored, and likes to get her rocks off. She proudly reveals that during her last stint in rehab just before the Grammys, she did drugs the entire time.

Winehouse has insisted from the beginning of her career that she is a simple girl crazy in love with her man. Her life, her history and talent all seem barely worth talking about when one could talk about Blake, how fit he is, how perfect for each other they are. “We are so in love, we are a team,” she rhapsodizes to me. “Blake, Blake, Blake, Blake, Blake, Blake, Blake.” It’s as if she’s putting herself in a trance…

Winehouse fell hard; his name was quickly tattooed on her chest. But the romance was rocky, and during one breakup, when Fielder-Civil left her for another woman, she wrote the bulk of Back to Black, her second album. Following incidents of public intoxication, her management tried to pack Winehouse off to rehab. Famously, she refused. By the time Back to Black hit the U.S. last year, Winehouse was hailed as the future of soul music. The album sold 2 million copies in America and eventually earned her five Grammys…

With her husband gone, Winehouse slid into a despondent place. She canceled her tour at the end of 2007, saying, “I can’t give it my all onstage without my Blake.” And in January, after a clip of her smoking crack was released to the tabloid The Sun, she was sent to rehab by her record label again. She didn’t stay long, and she happily tells me she did drugs the whole time…

Winehouse says all of this is the product of heartbreak from being separated from her true love, whose name appears in a little heart pin she often wears in her hair. “To be honest, my husband’s away, I’m bored, I’m young,” Winehouse tells me. “I felt like there was nothing to live for. It’s just been a low ebb.”

[From Rolling Stone]

If this is what she calls a “low ebb,” I’d hate to see what her version of rock bottom is! If anything, this interview shows how co-dependent Amy is when it comes to Blake Incarcerated. She seems to think that real love means ceasing to function when the other person isn’t there. It’s really sick. It sounds like Amy is going to have to kick her Blake addiction before she can address anything else. What the hell is it going to take?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Amy Winehouse is shown on 6/2/08 outside her husband’s trial. There are more recent photos of her, but none in the past week and a half or so. Thanks to WENN.

In the upcoming issue of More magazine, actress Jamie Lee Curtis admits that she battled a prescription drug addiction nearly fifteen years ago. She says it started after she had some cosmetic surgery on her eyes and was given a prescription pain killer. Pretty soon she was taking the pills to get high and drinking heavily and combat the loneliness she felt.

The glamorous actress, who became Lady Haden-Guest when her husband inherited his title in 1996, initially hid her dependency from her family. ‘No one knew. Chris didn’t have a clue,’ she says.

The star, whose father was infamous for drug-taking, recalls how her sister Kelly was staying at her mansion while recovering from a broken bone and Jamie Lee began pilfering her pills. Finally, she wrote Kelly a heart-breaking letter which she never sent.
Still stunning: Jamie-Lee Curtis at the Academy 2004

Still stunning: Jamie Lee Curtis arriving at the Oscars in 2004

It said: ‘I’ve been harbouring a bad secret. I have found and taken many of your painkillers. I’ve betrayed you, and I know that you’re angry, and you have every right to be. I am lonely. I take them at night to ease the pain. I was so afraid to tell you.’

[From the Daily Mail]

According to Jamie Lee part of the problem was her low self-esteem that caused her to get plastic surgery in the first place. A camera man had told her she was getting bags under her eyes. And in Hollywood, that’s a big deal. She also claims she drank because she felt ugly to her husband and the world in general.

She has said: ‘I attempted various types of plastic surgery, minutely but enough to stave off this encroaching middle-aged body. And every time I did, something went wrong. I felt misshapen, just not natural any more. I think it was a big stimulator of my drug abuse.’

In the new interview, which apppears in More, a leading US women’s magazine, Jamie Lee says that as part of her recovery she decided to let her hair go grey and stopped wearing high heels. But she admits she has found it difficult striking the right balance.

For a time she ‘got so caught up in not caring about body image’ that she was becoming unfit. ‘So I made a change and lost some weight,’ she says.

[From the Daily Mail]

Larry King’s wife Shawn Southwick King is currently in rehab for a prescription painkiller addiction. Everyone has their own way of dealing with self-esteem issues and feeling unattractive. Certainly drugs and alcohol aren’t uncommon, along with over and under eating. It sounds like Jamie Lee has finally found a balance that works for her – something that can take a lifetime. She also remembers what she’s gone through, and says that she keeps the letter she wrote to her sister as a constant reminder.

Here’s Jamie Lee Curtis being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on June 11th. Images thanks to WENN.

The newest issue of my favorite gossip rag, The National Enquirer, has an amusing story claiming that Paris Hilton has quit smoking pot because she was eating too much when she was high. They say that “Paris gets stoned all the time” and eats like crazy. She supposedly started noticing that her clothes were tight and decided that she needed to give up the herb if she didn’t want to buy a new wardrobe. Maybe she also got sick of people calling her pregnant after she had a pot-induced meal:

[Paris Hilton] became concerned recently because her clothes have been growing tight and she knew she was gaining weight. But it didn’t take her long to figure out why - Paris smokes a lot of dope and gets the munchies!

So now she’s decided to throw away the pipe to avoid the munchies and get back to her ideal weight, The Enquirer has learned exclusively.

“Paris gets stoned all the time!” said the source. “She will go to the bathroom to smoke at different Hollywood clubs, or sometimes she’ll just light up in the VIP area…

Paris showed up at a small house party once complaining that she ate a huge bag of chips before the party because she was stoned.”

And a Hollywood source told The Enquirer that when Paris couldn’t get into certain dresses she loved recently, she decided to give up smoking dope.

“That was it for Paris,” said the source. “She said the munchies were making her eat too much and she couldn’t believe how much weight she had gained.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, June 30, 2008]

In an interview in June of last year after she got out of jail, Paris told Larry King that she’s never even tried drugs despite the vast photographic evidence to the contrary. She also said she’s had ADD her entire life and that she’s been on medication for it since she was young. One of the side effects of the common ADHD drug Adderall is weight loss as it acts as a stimulant and suppresses the appetite. If Paris has quit smoking pot, she’s probably back to eating like the bird face that she is.

In related news, Paris Hilton’s pitch line on the website for her new line of hair extensions is “Everyone should get a chance to be me. That’s why I created the world’s hottest hair extensions. Choose from 10 fabulous shades and you will be a clip away from hotness.” She’s truly delusional if she thinks that people emulate her enough to spend $79 on fake hair. [via BellaSugar]

Here are photos of Paris smoking pot, and a link to The Smoking Gun’s compilation of her references to various drugs unearthed in the videos found in her storage locker and made public on “Paris Exposed.” The contents of her purse were also photographed in October, 2006 and a bag of what looked like pot was visible.

There is nothing shocking about the latest news that singer Amy Winehouse was admitted to the hospital after a fainting spell yesterday. However, what is surprising is that the doctors can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong with her. Tests done at the London Clinic were deemed “inconclusive.” Are you kidding me?

Amy Winehouse remains in hospital in London after fainting at home on Monday afternoon, with tests on the singer so far proving “inconclusive”.

“She seems to be fine in herself, but they are taking their time to be sure,” her spokesman said.

Winehouse had been “doing admin” when she fell ill but “quickly recovered”.

Her manager’s assistant had stopped her falling and Ms Winehouse’s father, Mitch, had taken her to hospital “as a precaution”, the spokesman added.

After receiving treatment, she stayed at the London Clinic for observation.

[From the BBC News]

Ahhh, “Doing Admin.” That must be what all the kids are calling it these days. I’m sure Amy got lots of “Admin” delivered to her house yesterday after making $2 Million for a brief appearance at a Moscow art gallery earlier in the week in which she appeared completely wasted and also wore no underpants. I can’t even imagine being in the front row of that mess. Yikes!

Meanwhile, Amy is rumored to be getting ready to renew her wedding vows with her jailbird husband, Blake Incarcerated.

Since their wedding in Miami just 13 months ago, the groom has been sent to jail and there have already been rumors that both of them have had affairs.

Amy, 24, was said to be cozying up to her manager’s assistant, Alex Haines, and was spotted out with her producer Mark Ronson.

Meanwhile, there were whispers that Blake, 25, had been getting close with with an old friend, Sarah Thomas, said to have been his ‘rock’ through the tough times.

Now sources close to Blake’s family tell the paper that they want to put all that behind them by renewing their vows just a year after they first took them — even though they’ll have to do it in jail.

“It’s been a hard time for everyone concerned,” said their source, “but we are sure that they will get through it as a couple.

“In a bid to show the world that she is standing by Blake, [Amy] is looking into renewing her wedding vows – and she doesn’t care if it has to be done behind bars.

“She is totally committed to him – and he to her.”

[From OK!]

Vomit! You know, I used to blame Blake Incarcerated for Amy’s state, but she continues her spiral even with him in the clink, so he can’t be the only reason she’s such a mess. Maybe the hospital can keep her there for a while and get her cleaned up. But first they have to figure out what’s wrong with her. Hey, doc, have you tried testing Amy for crack? Heroin? Cocaine? Valium? Spic n’ Span?

Picture note by Celebitchy: Amy Winehouse is shown in photos you may have already seen handing out ice pops to photographers outside her house on 6/11/08, thanks to WENN.

It’s always interesting – and often incredibly sad - to hear addicts talk about their “rock bottom” experience – that moment when they realized their lives were so out of hand and they had fallen so far down that their only options are to finally beat their addiction or die. Normally it’s a really powerful, frightening experience. For Robert Downey Jr, it’s all because of Burger King – and their crappy food.

Robert Downey Jr. has publicly thanked Burger King for helping him overcome his problems with addiction. The fast food chain, he says, also helped to resurrect his career.

The fast food epiphany happened in 2003 when the “Iron Man” star was driving a car piled with “tons of f—ing dope,” Downey Jr. told Britain’s Empire magazine. The actor decided to pull over for a burger and everything changed.

“I have to thank Burger King,” he said. “It was such a disgusting burger I ordered. I had that, and this big soda, and I thought something really bad was going to happen.” Downey Jr. says he then tossed all of his drugs into the ocean, deciding right then and there to clean up his act.

[From the Daily News]

Thanks for sucking so badly Burger King! Seriously, who would have thought that some of the world’s grossest fast food – and if you live in New York City, legendarily rude service – could save a life? Nothing like soggy, cold onion rings to realize how far you’ve fallen. I’m pretty sure Burger King can cure anyone of a junk food addiction – but good to know that it works for others as well.

Here’s Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan at the UK film premiere of ‘Iron Man’ at Leicester Square in London on April 24th. Images thanks to WENN.

Just in case Amy Winehouse’s career wasn’t screwed enough from her inability to perform, her crack-smoking video, her multiple arrests including an assault charge after she head-butted a guy, her general drugged-out behavior, and her curious friendship with perhaps the only current musician with a worse reputation than she has, there’s now a new video that’s been released by The News of The World that has shows Amy singing an obnoxious idiotic racist song that insults seven different groups at once. The News of The World also claims to have seen a video of Amy giving her husband a BJ, and a photo of her giving him a listless hand job. It doesn’t sound like Amy is shown doing drugs in the video, although she’s shown holding a home made crack pike and there is certainly plenty of paraphernalia strewn around. There is also a photo of Amy and Blake with white tablets in both of their mouths.

The News of The World describes the entire video, which was taken a little over a year ago by Amy’s incarcerated husband, Blake Fielder Civil. The say that the video was given to them by “a former friend determined to show the world just what power Blake wields in manipulating the vulnerable young star,” but Blake is likely the one who released the video and accompanying photos. There have been stories about how he’s been selling topless photos of Amy to his fellow inmates, and how he has a new girlfriend and they’re trying to extort money from the troubled star.

Fielder-Civil is now on trial for assault and “perverting the course of justice,” or witness tampering, and things seem to be better between the two. Amy has been showing up to blow kisses at her husband, speaking out inappropriately in the courtroom, and telling the press how f’ing handsome and great he is. That doesn’t mean he’s beyond releasing this video and photos, especially considering how much he lies to her on tape and swears up and down he’s not recording:

In a sequence shot around May 2007—weeks after the couple eloped to wed in Miami—they are in a dingy crack den with Delboy-style bamboo patterned wallpaper.

Amy, 24, and a pal called Sarah giggle as they sing a string of racist lines set to the tune of kiddies’ favourite ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’.

Blake pretends NOT to record the unfolding events and eggs them on, saying: “Can we have a singsong of it?”

Sarah is at first reluctant but soon warms to the action as Amy enthusiastically sings:

“Blacks, Pakis, Gooks and Nips, Gooks and Nips!

“And deaf and dumb and blind and gay!”

She repeats the first line over again and on the word “Nips” Amy pulls her eyes into slits then pushes her boobs up in a gesture to her nipples.

The girls’ efforts are greeted warmly by Blake, who pledges: “Well done. I promise I wasn’t recording it.” Amy Winehouse’s shock show-off pose

He then adds to Sarah: “I swear on your life. I swear on your life.”

As the camera pans back we see a coffee table in front of Amy. On it are SIX cigarette lighters and what appears to be HEROIN on a foil—a typical druggie scene set for “chasing the dragon” by heating the drug from below then inhaling the smoke through a tube.

[From News of the World]

Amy seemed to clean up briefly right before the Grammys in early February. She gave a great performance and seemed genuinely touched to have received five awards, including best new artist. Her troubles go beyond her choice of companions, though, and she looks worse and is acting out in public more than she did last year when this video was taken.

It’s pretty disgusting how racist and stupid she is, and she doesn’t need to have the public know that she’s an ignorant bigot as well as a drug addict. That’s not something you joke about and I wonder if she’ll apologize. Her back up band is made up of black guys and she has fans all over the world. But Paris used the “n” word and that was caught on tape and she didn’t suffer much fall out unfortunately. This is a much worse offense in that she insults four groups with incredibly derogatory names and dismisses them by saying they’re “deaf, dumb, blind and gay,” as if that’s the most negative thing she can come up with. She’s managed to dismiss and insult seven groups in one sing-song rant and there will be many more people who are unwilling to work with her or buy her music now that this is out.

After everything that this 24 year-old woman has gone through you hope she’ll clean up and that someone will step in and help her. It seems like less of a possibility the more time passes, and one of the sad things about these photos is that she looks much healthier than she does now. The more photos and videos that come out of her doing drugs and acting like a fool the less I care what happens to her though. I don’t wish her any harm, but she’s dug herself a deep hole and she seems more than content to wallow in it, singing about how happy she is to roll around in the mud.

Photos are from News of The World, where there are many more, including some of her husband’s tattoo tributes to her.

After her drug bust this past weekend actress Tatum O’Neal called up the New York Post to give a media-quote-friendly, upbeat, positive interview. A little too much so, in my opinion. I tend to be ridiculously optimistic, but by the end of reading O’Neal’s interview – in which she repeats every addiction cliché in the book – I was left feeling like she was reading from a script. She was just way too bubbly, everything considered. She even went so far as to say New York was “cool” for not giving her any special treatment, implying that she would have gotten it somewhere else. I doubt she thought it was cool while her ass was in jail.

Tatum also claims that she’s still sober, because she was buying drugs for the first time. So Tatum says she’s thankful she was arrested and didn’t actually relapse.

“I’m still sober!” she announced to me, two hours after being sprung from a night in jail, rumpled but far more rested and relaxed than I might look after a warm shower and heavy doses of caffeine. “Just when I was about to change that and wreck my life, the cops came and saved me!” Tatum crowed. “I was saved by the bell, by the guys in the Seventh Precinct.”

[From the New York Post]

Tatum once again blames her almost-relapse on the death of her 16-year-old Scottish terrier. She claims she was doing everything she was supposed to – visiting her psychiatrist, going to AA meetings daily – but that she just couldn’t handle the extreme grief she felt. She said she was wandering around aimlessly this weekend, without even intending to buy drugs, and then she did.

“One day, I’m walking aimlessly. I found myself doing the wrong thing.” Tatum, 44, told me how, in a funk, she met Alan Garcia, 33, “a drug addict who was panhandling,” and bought coke. I told her she was charged with buying crack, too.

“It’s both?” she asked, surprised. “I didn’t even know what I was buying!”

Tatum wants to reach out to the dealer, who was charged with a felony, while she faces a misdemeanor drug-possession charge. “I’m going to try to see if I can help him. He’s not a drug dealer. He’s a panhandler who sold drugs. I’m going to talk to my lawyer.”

[From the New York Post]

“It’s both?” Oh I love that. How naive and precious you are, Tatum O’Neal. I think that was the point in the article when I no longer bought it. Up until then I was still trying to go with the whole “the death of my dog made me want to use crack,” thing, even though I couldn’t imagine going there myself. But everyone has a right to their own emotions, and I’m sure some people are that attached to their pets. And I even tried to go with the whole, “I’m just wandering around, thinking about buying a soda, and I bought some crack instead,” idea. But to pretend to not even know what she was buying or know what she was charged with is utterly ridiculous. Come on, you had to find out from a Post reporter? Too far.

Get this. Tatum, who’s never been in jail before, is glad she was busted. “It was a shock to me, and a huge wakeup call. I’m eternally grateful, as sort of grim as the situation was, that I didn’t get to do what my disease was telling me to do. I’m still going to get my year on July 10!”

How can you not love her?

Eighteen hours behind bars wasn’t so bad. “I slept on a mattress with a couple of ladies because I was tired,” she giggled. “And they were nice! And I thought the thing that was cool about New York, no special treatment. No special cell.

[From the New York Post]

I really hope Tatum gets better, and does whatever it takes to keep her addiction under control. I’m guessing part of that will involve getting real with herself, which I don’t think she’s done yet.

Here’s Tatum O’Neal at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 25th. PR Photos doesn’t list the people with her, but they look like her three kids with ex-husband John McEnroe. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Tatum O’Neil is like the female equivalent of Robert Downey Jr. The former child star has been battling substance abuse for years and comes from a family that’s filled with similar problems, including her half brothers, Griffin and Patrick, both of whom have served jail time for drug related charges. O’Neil lost custody of her children with tennis star John McEnroe due to her heroin addiction, and in the years since has worked hard to clean up her act for her kids’ sake. But it looks like she has slipped up again- big time. The actress was arrested in New York over the weekend for buying crack and cocaine.

TMZ has confirmed that Tatum O’Neal has been popped by the NYPD for allegedly scoring crack and coke last night.

The NYPD tells TMZ that O’Neal was “observed” allegedly buying crack on the Lower East Side near her apartment there. She was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and was held at the Seventh Precinct downtown. We’re told that she’s waiting to see the judge now to be arraigned at Central Booking in Lower Manhattan.

Tatum has admitted to battling drug addiction for years. Her rep couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

[From TMZ]

Hopefully, Tatum will get treatment and get back on track. But with the courts involved, her visitation with her children could be at stake. I don’t know how she could risk that over drugs- but then again, I’m not an addict.

I have liked Tatum since she was a kid in movies like “Little Darlings” and “The Bad News Bears.” I read her memoir, and her childhood sounds like it was no picnic- she says she was molested by one of her father’s friends, and both her parents had substance abuse problems. Not that these are excuses for her drug addiction, but there’s a definite pattern of drug use that she grew up around- as evidenced by the similar problems her brothers have had.

Note by Celebitchy: The Today Show had more details this morning. (This is nearly verbatim from the report below.) “She initially told police she was researching a role as a junkie, but when they found crack and cocaine on her she said this was her first relapse. She was arrested three blocks from her house during a drug sweep of the area, and was seen handing money over to a man thought to be a dealer. She was found with two dime bags and a crack pipe. She was arrested with the dealer and will face a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance.”

Tatum O’Neal is shown with her daughter Emily McEnroe on 4/25/08 at the Tribeca Film Festival, thanks to WENN.