LOS ANGELES, California (X17online) - Actress Tatum O'Neal, 44, was arrested last night (June 2) on the streets of New York City's Lower East Side, when detectives caught her buying cocaine and crack from a drug dealer.

O'Neal was arrested around 7:30 pm ET Sunday on Clinton Street between East Broadway and Grant Street, according to the Manhattan South Narcotics unit whose detectives nabbed the actress.

The actress replied by saying she was researching a role, according to a New York Post source: "You know who I am, right?" Then she said, "I'm researching a part - I'm doing this for a part as a junkie. Can't we just forget about this?"

O'Neal was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and the alleged dealer, Alan Garcia, 33, for criminal sale of a controlled substance.

The daughter of actor Ryan O'Neal, Tatum was the youngest actor ever to receive an Oscar -- she won best supporting actress for her role in Paper Moon in 1974.

She struggled with drug and alcohol addiction but entered rehab an claimed to have beaten it by 1996. She claimed, in her 2004 memoir, A Paper Life, that drinking and drugging were in her blood since her mother, the late actress Joanna Moore, was an alcoholic and addicted to amphetamines as she raised Tatum and her younger brother Griffin in Los Angeles.

O'Neal was married to tennis star John McEnroe from 1986 to 1992 and the couple has three children together - Sean, Emily, and Kevin.

O'Neal recently said in an interview that she had sympathy for Britney Spears and that it wasn't until she herself moved out of LA that she started to gain control of her life and escape the pressures of Hollywood.

The actress had recently attempted to revive her career, with various television appearances including a guest appearance on Denis Leary's Rescue Me.

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