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Mischa Barton refuses to pay sobriety bill

Feb 23, 2013, 20:01 GMT

Mischa Barton

Mischa Barton refuses to pay her former sobriety coaches.

The former 'The O.C.' actress turned handbag designer was ordered to pay Doctors' Choice Nursing (DCN) $95,000 for services they provided her in 2009 but she claims she is not responsible for the outstanding bill as she didn't hire the team to look after her.

A default judgment was entered against the 27-year-old star in 2011 after she failed to show up in court when the company filed a lawsuit to recoup the money owed to them for helping her to stay sober.

But Mischa's lawyer argued in court on Thursday (21.02.13) that her mother hired the sobriety nurses and therefore she ran up the bills so the actress isn't responsible for them, according to gossip website TMZ.com.

The 'Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain' actress is fighting the default judgment and her lawyer pointed out that the owner of the DCN failed to notify Mischa directly about the mounting bill, saying it didn't make sense if they thought she was responsible for paying it.

The owner claimed that she didn't want to add to Mischa's stress, as it was the nurses' job to keep her sober before an important acting role in 2009, the same year that she was starring in 'The Beautiful Life' and was legally held in hospital under psychiatric observation.

A judge has yet to rule on who is liable to pay the bill.

Mischa, who is now based in London, recently said she wants to escape Hollywood and live on a farm after turning her life around following a dramatic few years.

She said: 'The people in my life are so over [the celebrity lifestyle]. They're not the kind of people to read the gossip press. Getting caught up in that young Hollywood bulls**t is not my vibe.

'I'm ready to go and get a farm and live in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty proud of the person I've become in the past few years, considering what I've been through. I have a great support network. I don't think that the Parises and Lindsays have the same kind of support network.'