Bad News Bares Tatum’s Disease

Tatum O’Neal, who at ten in 1974 became the youngest person to ever win an Academy Award as supporting actress in the movie Paper Moon, opened up to the public about her abusive past, drug addiction, and subsequent recovery 30 years later her book A Paper Moon.

Arrested for possession of crack cocaine, headlines this weekend bared her struggle with addiction once again to the public.

Growing up in the 70’s, to me Paper Moon was a boring black and white movie. I will always remember Ms O’Neal as the precocious Amanda in the Bad News Bears. Although it’s seriously doubtful that Walter Matthau had anything to do with it, the above scene with young Tatum and Butterworth the alcoholic serves as an apt analogy to the availability of drugs and alcohol in Hollywood party scene. She was exposed early and often enough to drugs and alcohol that a substance abuse problem was almost a given, her story is sadly similar to most child actors who grow up in this caustic environment.

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Although I am never surprised at relapse, for some reason her fall seems to affect me more than usual. Maybe it’s just the nostalgic longing, memories of an early teen boy watching bad-girl Ferris in Little Darlings, for some reason I feel sort of a kinship. Yeah, that’s about all the cheese and corn you will get out of TDA this week, but its true.

It seemed that after suffering greatly from the disease, losing what could have been an iconic career and children to her addiction, that later in life she had finally embarked upon a strong recovery program. She was once again working regularly and even becoming sought after for upcoming roles. Last year she was even giving advice to Brittany Spears who lost her children under similar circumstances to seek treatment. This year: another round of police, courtrooms, disappointment and depression- I wish her the best and hope that she doesn’t quit trying to recover her life and happiness. As Butterworth would say, “Listen, Lupus, you didn't come into this life just to sit around on a dugout bench, did ya? Now get your ass out there and do the best you can.”