Actress Mischa Barton is facing a lawsuit from her landlord over allegations she owes $21,000 (£13,000) in unpaid rent on her New York apartment. In a lawsuit filed on January 21, lawyers for property company M.R.A. Realities Inc. claim the former The O.C. star has ignored continued requests to pay rent for the last three months. The star rented out the $7,000 ($4,300)-a-month pad in the Big Apple’s trendy Tribeca neighbourhood on a one-year lease in September. She had planned to stay in the city while filming her now defunct TV show The Beautiful Life. The series was axed the same month. The landlords are seeking the outstanding rent as well as legal fees.

Mischa Barton can understand why she’s still single – because her clumsy habits make her “an embarrassment” to be around. The actress is regularly falling over and bumping into objects, and she fears her haphazard ways scare off potential suitors.She tells Britain’s OK! magazine, “I’m ridiculously clumsy, you’d never want to date me. I’m an embarrassment. I wouldn’t even know where to start with telling you things that I’ve walked into.” And Barton is convinced her clumsy ways make her a special target for the paparazzi: “I think that’s why the paps love me, they know I will end up on my a** looking silly. I’m constantly bruising myself and grazing knees. A total klutz.”

Mischa Barton has never been dumped. The actress – who has been linked with a string of famous men, including singers Luke Pritchard and Johnny Borrell – insists the closes she has came to getting her heart broken was when a relationship ended mutually and she just got angry with the boyfriend for not letting her end the romance alone. She said: “I’ve never been dumped. One tried to make it quite mutual though so that felt as close to dumping as I’ve got. I kind of lost it and was like, ‘You are not turning this on me. I dumped you first.’ “I felt like my heart was broken at the end of a couple of relationships but it wasn’t really.” The former O.C. star also insisted she is currently single – but is looking for a new boyfriend. She added: “I’m not even dating. I’m just on the prowl I suppose.”

Mischa Barton sometimes “pigs out” and ignores her diet. The former O.C. actress claims she doesn’t always watch what she eats because she will always face criticism over her figure. She said: “I’m proud of my body. It’s either you’re too fat or you’re too skinny – you can’t win, so who cares? I eat healthy and sometimes I pig out, but I exercise regularly. I’m into Pilates and I’m always out with my dogs, so I just burn it all off. I’ll hike around the canyons, then really step up my cardio. I’ll run for hours.” Despite all the speculation and interest in her body shape, Mischa said she still leads a normal life and her family keep her grounded. She added: “I haven’t changed much about my life since I became famous. I still take the subway and do my own laundry. I’m not a b***h. I clean my own c**p and I enjoy having a normal life.”

Mariska Hargitay spoke on the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild awards tonight about Mischa Barton, who guest stars on Law and Order: SVU in an upcoming episode. The two ladies worked together for a couple weeks on the set, and Mariska was very complimentary. Mariska said about the former O.C. star, who was rumored to be unprofessional on the set of the NBC series: “[She is] an amazing professional,” Mariska told Access Hollywood on the red carpet. “Lovely to work with. She does good work.” Then, she turned to the cameras and reportedly yelled out: “The gossip is fiction!”