Mischa Barton’s Dogs Keep Her Grounded

Mischa Barton has the ultimate entourage to help keep her grounded: her dogs.

“All kinds of things keep me grounded. My dogs and having to wake up and walk them every morning and having to walk them before bed at night,” the actress told People from New York City, where she’s filming her new CW series, “The Beautiful Life.” “The routine of everything I do – going to work every day here and working on a television series and how much work that is.”

Barton hasn’t given any formal media interviews since her reported hospitalization in a psychiatric ward in July, but explained to a reporter last month that she had been feeling “down in the dumps” and suffered a botched wisdom-tooth surgery.

“This job is really great,” Barton said of her role as a fashion model on “The Beautiful Life.” “It’s a great group of people to work with and a great stability. At the same time, it means that if you work really hard, you can enjoy your private life and know that you’re doing a really good job at something and have a lot more peace of mind.”