No wonder actress Mischa Barton likes to spend more time with her dogs than boyfriends these days.
Since landing her star-making role on “The OC” at 15, Barton has made one headline after another as the result of several high-profile romances, including ones with actor Brandon Davis and Cisco Adler, the rocker ex of Paris Hilton.
These days Barton likes to clock time in between movie projects – she left “The OC” after three seasons when her character, the troubled Marissa Cooper, died in a car crash in the finale – with her dogs, Ziggy and Charlie.
“My dog is always my boyfriend,” laughs the actress in an interview with Britain’s You magazine, a division of The Mail on Sunday. “Charlie is the best – I got him when I broke up with Brandon Davis and he will always be my number one man and he knows that.”
And though paparazzi are fond of snapping photos of Barton hanging out with her dogs, it beats being trailed on dates. Ziggy often travels with Barton, while Charlie, a nervous former rescue dog, stays at home in California.
“The dogs are a huge part of my downtime,” she says. “Actually, it’s shocking how much you can become consumed by them.”