The last time we covered Mischa Barton she was bitching about her career-making turn on The O.C., seemingly blaming her subsequent lack of a career on that one role which made her famous. She said she probably wouldn’t have done the The O.C. in retrospect and that it was “Something I came so close to not doing. I had a really great thing with film. People say be grateful for what you have but it certainly not the kind of thing I was expecting it to be.”
In that same interview, Mischa also claimed she was a diligent actress who wanted to be known for work ethic instead of her personal life. She said “I just like to be seen for the hard-working actress that I am and not for a bunch of extraneous press.” She sounded like Lindsay Lohan, only less crackie, with more career prospects and a modicum of believability.
Well now Mischa is continuing to act like Lohan. This spring she was slated to begin work on a new movie for which she’d been paid a $20,000 advance. (She must have really needed the money considering that her home is in foreclosure.) Instead of showing up for work as scheduled in early March, Mischa jetted off to Europe and blew off the film’s start date. She posted a bunch of photos of herself in Italy to her social media accounts at the time, enraging the movie’s producers. She’s now being sued for the advance she was paid, plus $300,000 for the money that was lost when she blew off the job. TMZ has the news:
Mischa hasn’t had a hit since “The O.C.” wrapped in 2006 … but she got a huge break when she was hired to star in the movie, “Promoted.”
Producers claim in a new lawsuit — obtained by TMZ — they attempted to contact Mischa about the March 4 start date and also about sizing her costumes … but got no response.
On March 3 … producers got an email from Mischa’s mom, saying, “Mischa is still in Europe and won’t be available until the 20th of this month.”
The producers — furious — went on Mischa’s social media accounts to find she was actually partying in Europe … on vacation and “enjoying tourist excursions with friends.”
Mischa’s absence created a snowball effect … the lead actor didn’t want to work with another actress, and so on and so on.
The “actress” is now being sued for the $20,000 advance she got, $200,000 in marketing expenses, and $100,000 which they say they will lose because Mischa’s not attached anymore.
I don’t get how Mischa could “forget” that she had a job to report to in March, unless she decided she hated the project and made a deliberate effort to be scarce when she was supposed to show up. Of course that’s incredibly unprofessional either way. You can easily get your email and check your voice and text messages from Europe, it’s not like it would have been so difficult for Mischa to communicate with producers herself. The fact that her mom emailed for her makes me assume that she didn’t want to take that role. In that case she should have informed producers rather than screw over countless cast and crew who depended on her for work. I can’t believe someone would do that.
Update: Mischa is shilling diet pills now. Oh and as Evil Beet notes, her IMDB is full of films coming out, so it’s unclear why she’s endorsing so many products. She’s also the spokesperson for an e-cigarette.
Here are Mischa’s tweets from when she was supposed to be working:
I still can't get enough of Rome ! Spanish steps yesterday w Alan pic.twitter.com/WhGWBhrFUp
— Mischa M Barton (@MischAmazing) March 16, 2014
Fallo – my new favourite place in italy pic.twitter.com/y10r3A4JcU
— Mischa M Barton (@MischAmazing) March 2, 2014
photo credit: WENN.com
Should we be surprised?
I would never!
As if she is turning down offers for work?
She should be praying for an O.C reunion or something. Girlfriend is not a good enough actress to “forget” about work.
She was Lindsay Lohan even before Lindsay Lohan went Lindsay Lohan.
Yup.
Yes, she’s been a mess for a long time.
She looks like Kirstie Alley in that top pic.
Look at her IMDB, she has like 20 b-movies in development.
The key word is “development” as opposed to “actually being releases soon in movie theaters.” Development is a term everyone in Egowood tosses about to sound important.
I know that. I was making fun of her, which is why I pointed out that they’re all B-movies. And even if they do end up being filmed they won’t see theaters. These days, Mischa only does the kind of movies that go straight to DVD.
In the blue dress it looks like she has no arms… that is all.
What a dumbass. She had money upfront she could have used to pay bills, and a JOB. One job usually leads to another, so maybe she could have rebooted her career a bit. Instead, she went off and partied, and now is being sued for a ton of money! I’d say they have a pretty good case too.
Plus, if I were the bank waiting on mortgage payments for her house, I’d be pretty pissed to see her gallivanting around Europe too.
Jesus… she really aged badly.
It’s crazy… she was SO, so so SOOO stunning on The OC. I remember seeing her on the very first episode, and I was so taken aback by her beauty. She still has a beautiful face but she looks so worn out and damaged by all the booze and drugs.
Sucks because she was a pretty decent child actor. But I guess you can only cover it up for so long and the real (lack of) talent has to eventually shine through.
Sigh… Coop + Ryan forever! (Well, season 1 at least!)
I hated Ryan and Marissa together. She was always the delicate little damsel that he had to go rush off and save, inevitably landing himself in hot water in the process!
I agree, she had such a unique beauty for TV at that time. Sad to see that she didn’t respect her body.
come on, she’s still pretty imo
Most child stars do. Too much stress, drugs, and misery.
Sharknado 3, Mischa, Sharknado 3.
Yup, you win the thread! 🙂
To me she will never be Lindsay Lohan. She doesn’t appear dirty, I don’t have a strong urge to slap her, she doesn’t have hideous tattoos up and down her arms, she doesn’t put breasts on display that sag down to her waist, and I can halfway believe an interview she gives versus rolling my eyes and guffawing at the nonsense spewing from between her teeth.
Frequent reader non-commenter here, but felt the need to comment on this one! I have a friend who worked on one of her films and she was a TOTAL nightmare!!! She’s told me story after story about how awful she was but one of my favorites was that the costumer handed Mischa her shoes and Mischa said “I don’t f*ing carry my own shoes!” then proceeded to throw said shoes and hit the costumer in the head. Can you imagine a grown woman acting that way?!!
She should be lucky anyone is willing to offer her work after how awful she is. She is definitely Lilo 2.0 in more ways than one!!
Just saw the trailer that movie- it actually looks cool despite Mischa being in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW5CzItXrHo
Please share another story if your friend told you more than one. I can’t understand how someone would think it is OK to assault another person who is WORKING FOR/WITH THEM.
Oh my goodness, there are lots of stories. Another one: Mischa brought her dog with her to work and it bit one of the crew. NO apology from her!! Who let’s their dog bite another human being and just completely ignores it?! No apology, no asking if the person is ok. Talk about entitled.
One more comment- same friend went to a crew/friends screening and she said everyone gasped at Mischa’s parts because they throw so much shade at her! Sounds like she plays a “character” much like herself- an out of work actress!
Mischa made the mistake of confusing gossip column coverage and red carpet appearances with actual approval of her behavior. ‘Young Hollywood’ at the time was great for outlets like E! and Perez, but it’s no coincidence that none of that crew saw any real success after their initial claims to fame. Mischa was famous for her bad behavior (her sister apparently wasn’t much better) and its clear that she still hasn’t learned her lesson.
Benjamin MacKenzie has but it’s no surprise he was the oldest of the group and the one least seen in the gossip columns. He went onto Southland and is now the lead in Gotham.
I was referring to that “young Hollywood” crew, not The OC. The show may not have produced a huge superstar, but most of the cast still works very steadily. But that party crowd (Hilton, Richie, Davis, Stewart, Lohan, Adler) didnt exactly amount to much, excepting Nicole Richie.
Who’s funding her European excursions? Hmmmm.
LiLo and Mischa both have pimps… I mean Momagers.
She is a massive cautionary tale. If I had a 15-20 year old in showbusiness right now I’d require them to do a research paper on this girl. She doesn’t have the personality disorder LiLo appears to have, but wow if there was a career mistake to be made, she’s made it. I also heard she went and took a class at RADA in London. Great…but without the work ethic so what?
Also Mischa dear, that four pounds you lost was water weight. I can lose that at a single hot yoga class without putting who knows what in my body. Scary!!!
I do not understand how somebody clearly in need of money and clearly not blessed with an overabundance of talent or beauty could afford to blow off a professional obligation. She should be working extra hard to be a professional so she can claw her way back from obscurity. She deserves to lose her house and she deserves to be shunned if this is how she treats the investment of others