Mischa Barton: 2009 in Review, Part I

When you look back at the year in whole, Mischa Barton stayed pretty busy in 2009. She worked on movies, attended fashion week shows and events, was hospitalized for a breakdown and played a part in a new TV show The Beautiful Life that was canceled after two episodes.

Here’s a look at Mischa’s first six months in 2009:

Peeling back the pages on the calendar, in January of 2009, Mischa was filming Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain in India with Martin Sheen. There hasn’t been a release date for the movie yet, but the movie is completed. Bhopal recently held a 25th anniversary of the event, so maybe it will come out in 2010.

Mischa also launched her online boutique in January – www.mischabartonhandbags.com

Towards the end of January, Mischa returned to Paris and became a spokesperson for Herbal Essence. On Jan. 24, 2009, Mischa celebrated her 23rd birthday.

Mischa attended Paris Fashion Week events at the end of January, looking very thin and sparking a whole bunch of rumors about her weight.

And if that wasn’t a busy enough month for Mischa, she was spotted with The Kooks singer Luke Pritchard.

The last few days of January and early February, Mischa came home to Los Angeles. Mid-February she was spotted at Michael Williamson’s opening in New York. She also enjoyed attended Fashion Week in New York.

In late February, Mischa was cast in the movie The Science of Cool. This movie is still in its early stages and has yet to start filming.

In March, previews and photos of Mischa’s movie straight-to-DVD movie Walled In came out. There also was a rumor that Mischa could be cast in Melrose Place.

In early March, Mischa and Luke Pritchard broke up, but remained friends.

Around March 12, 2009, Mischa was cast in the role of Sonya on The CW’s model drama The Beautiful Life. That was the end of the Melrose Place rumors.

During early 2009, Mischa was active with her new website mischabarton.com, that she rarely posts too now, and even used Twitter occasionally.

Mischa did several magazine interviews and photoshoots in 2009, most of them in the UK. Among them were the Blackbook shoot, UK’s Cosmopolitan, and FHM, ASOS, among others.

In April, more news started coming out about The Beautiful Life and Mischa went to Milan to promote Herbal Essence.

In late April, Mischa launched a new handbag label in London. She also attended the FiFi UK Fragrance Awards and the BAFTA Awards show in London.

Mischa’s newest hair accessories line with Stacey Lapidus also came out in late April.

Mischa’s thriller movie Homecoming was set for a July limited release in mid-May.

But the biggest news in May, or in the whole year really, was when The CW announced it was picking up The Beautiful Life! 

Photo Credit: Jan Thijs / The CW © 2009 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

At the end of May, Mischa promoted Herbal Essence in Russia and she made plans to move to New York City before production on The Beautiful Life started in mid-July. We also got to see the Homecoming trailer.

More magazine interviews included Glamour Italy.

In June, we learned Mischa’s movie Assassination of a High School President would be going to DVD in October.

In mid-June, a kick-off party for The Beautiful Life and The Vampire Diaries was held in New York, but Mischa wasn’t present. Later, we learned The Beautiful Life would make its debut on Wednesday, Sept. 16.

Here’s a review I wrote in June about The Beautiful Life after watching the screener.

Also in June, new photos were released to celebrate Mischa’s new handbags.

Mischa’s FanForum celebrated 200,000 posts in June too.

In late June, Mischa was a special guest at the Harrod’s Summer Sale in London. Later there would be rumors that her face was bloated in some of the photos and that she acted strangely during interviews. This was probably when her dental work was done that led to her hospitalization in July.

Keep reading Mischa News for “Mischa Barton: 2009 in Review Part II.”

Image: splashnewsonline.com