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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