Did she really try to commit suicide? No one really knows why Mischa Barton was placed under "involuntary psychiatric hold" at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in July, which supposedly delayed the filming of her new series The Beautiful Life.
And while the 23-year-old actress has kept quiet for several weeks now, her silence hasn't really extinguished the controversy surrounding her rehab stint. There are even rumors that her character will eventually be written off The CW drama. But enough is enough. Barton finally opens up to Time Out New York
to let her critics know the truth once and for all.
Not all titles featured on BuddyTV are available through Amazon Prime.
Like most people, I thought that Barton's rehab stint was caused by an eating disorder or substance abuse. But that's not the case. Evidently, it all started with a dreadful wisdom tooth operation that sent the actress in distress. "Before the show started, I was traveling abroad for contract stuff and I went through a terrible surgery--a wisdom tooth surgery, all four removed," Barton revealed. "It was a nightmare. I've never had surgery before--it all went wrong and I had to have a second surgery and it almost delayed shooting because it was a nightmare to me, because I couldn't deal with the thought of not getting there on time. So with the travel, and surgery and prep for the show--it was hell."
Barton, who was previously charged with two misdemeanors: driving without a valid license and a DUI in 2007, is no stranger to controversy. This time, however, she describes her recent dilemma as "the perfect storm."
"I went through a tough spot where everything compounded on me. The show, travel and then this fairly routine surgery that went wrong--it's still just healing. But I had to get through it without proper painkillers because I couldn't take those during work. So it's been a nightmare... I was down in the dumps about everything there for a while," Barton said.
Still, Barton wouldn't say if what she experienced was a nervous breakdown since her issue was "more about the pain." In spite of everything, she now feels "really in control" and she's trying to prove her detractors wrong by getting back to work on the set of The Beautiful Life
, where she ironically plays a pill-popping model.
-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist(Image courtesy of The CW)