HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Mischa Barton was placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold on Wednesday, but the development isn't a complete surprise to those closest to the star.
"She has been dealing with a lot of personal issues," a friend of Barton's tells People. "I don't know if she really ever gave up some of the bad habits that had gotten out of control a couple years back."
Some of those "bad habits" could go back to when the 23-year-old Barton was hospitalized in May 2007 after she became sick at a Memorial Day barbeque with friends. At the end of the year, the former "O.C." star hit a lowpoint when she was arrested in West Hollywood for DUI, marijuana possession and driving without a license. Barton, who was sentenced to 36 months probation, alcohol education classes and a fine, later revealed that she entered rehab shortly after her arrest.
"I wanted to prove to the court that I would take it completely seriously, so I went to rehab to prove I was sober," she told the U.K.'s Marie Claire in November. "It really helped in getting the more serious aspects of my case dropped because, you know, that's what they want to hear; you're not an alcoholic and you don't have a problem. So I did it in the most low-key way possible — I didn't make a fuss about it and I didn't tell a lot of my friends. I just did the program and got through it."
What led to Barton's latest hospitalization remains a mystery to nearly everyone, including the producer of her new film, "Homecoming."
"I haven't been able to [speak with her,] I think she's under lock and key right now," producer Bingo Gubelmann told Access Hollywood at the film's premiere Thursday night in New York City.
While Gubelmann expressed regret that Barton's hospitalization caused her to miss the film's premiere, he said that wouldn't keep him from casting her again in the future.
"She was so professional," he said of Barton's work on the film. "I would definitely work with her again, no matter what. No matter how this goes down."
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