Tatum O’Neal Was Arrested For Buying Cocaine

Tatum O’Neal, who has spoken and written about her years-long battle with addiction, was busted last night just blocks from her Lower East Side luxury apartment - charged with buying cocaine and crack.Sources told The Post the 44-year-old actress - who became the youngest-ever to snag an Oscar, at age 10, for her role in “Paper Moon” - was arrested at 7:30 p.m. by detectives from Manhattan South Narcotics on Clinton Street between East Broadway and Grand Street.

“When the police approached, she asked them, ‘You know who I am, right?’ ” one source said.“Then she said, ‘I’m researching a part - I’m doing this for a part as a junkie.’ ”The source said detectives found a pipe on O’Neal, daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal. The pipe and screen were clean.

“Then she said she’d been clean for two years, and that she’d just came out today,” the source said.“Can’t we just forget about this?” sources said she begged the detectives.The suspected drug dealer, Alan Garcia, 33, 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, The Forward, which used to house the Jewish newspaper of the same name.“She’s cool - it’s the last thing I thought would happen,” said a security official at her apartment building. “I’m shocked.”