“I was standing beside this guy at the bar when Barton went past us carrying two drinks,” an snooping onlooker at the watering hole snitched to RadarOnline.com Tuesday. “The next thing I knew he threw his drink over her back and she turned around and asked him: ‘Did you just throw a drink over me?’”

The man curtly replied that the thrown drink was in retaliation for Mischa having stepped on his shoe earlier, without excusing herself. Well, Mischa was having none of that. The star promptly responded by tossing her own pricey cocktail in the partygoer’s face, slapping the slickster right in the smacker, thank you very much.

When Mischa returned to her table and told her drinking buddies what happened, one of her male friends became incensed and decided to confront the guy.

“Within a few minutes one of her male friends came over to confront the guy and asked him to step outside….”

They ended up brawling on the dance floor before bouncers broke them and ejected everyone from the club.
To her credit, Mischa’s got some pretty tough friends. That naughty drink-tosser reportedly suffered “a gash to his head” and a cut knee in the melee.

Instead, 23-year-old Mischa has turned her focus to landing “more serious roles.” Uh-huh, well let’s see how that works out for her….

The actress rose to fame starring on teen soap The O.C., but struggled to land any major movie roles after the program ended in 2006. Eventually, Mischa signed up for Ashton Kutcher’s runway drama The Beautiful Life, but the series was scrapped by The CW due to poor ratings after just two episodes.

“I think I need to back away from the whole TV approach. That whole world of network television, probably isn’t, for me, a good idea now. I need to start reading for more serious roles,” she tells PEOPLE.com.

Bosses on The Beautiful Life- which was produced by Ashton Kutcher – were aware of Mischa’s fragile emotional state, so they asked her mother/manager Nuala to break the news the show was over.

“Mischa fell into her mother’s arms and sobbed. Nuala reminded her that there will be other opportunities and it wasn’t the end of the world, but Mischa got mad and screamed how she couldn’t understand. It was rough, apparently,” a source spills to Britain’s Star Magazine. “She said it wasn’t her fault they didn’t promote the show or keep it running long enough so people could discover it on their own.”

Mischa — who was placed under involuntary psychiatric care in L.A.’s Cedars-Sinai in July – was so devastated when the fashion-centered became the first show of the new season to get the boot, she’s now frightened she’ll never find acting work again.

“This show was such an ego boost for her at a time when she needed one. She has been insecure about where her career was going and feels she may be a has-been at 23. She hasn’t been overwhelmed with offers since ‘The O.C.’ went off the air,” the snitch blabbed on. “She needs to feel she’s still employable. Right now, that’s her deepest fear. That no one will hire her again. It’s not true, but that’s how insecure she can get sometimes.”

Mischa — who is promoting her new CW series The Beautiful Life describes her hospitalization as “silly” and insists the incident was “blown out of proportion.” When Barbara Walters pointed out that she was in the psychiatric ward for two weeks, “not just the regular hospital,” the actress blamed her meltdown on recent dental work.

“Right, I mean, it was just … I was overwhelmed,” she explained. “I had too much work going on. I had a surgery for my wisdom teeth that went really badly. I had been in the hospital. I had two surgeries on my wisdom teeth. I had four taken out and they had gotten it really badly wrong. They had to drill into my jaw and I was just in really excruciating pain.”

“I had an infection and a dry socket and I woke up on a Sunday morning and there was no doctor available,” she continued. “I was trying to take the minimum amount of pain killers and get through it because I had to go to work soon and I was getting ready to go do this show, ‘The Beautiful Life,’ and meanwhile I still had a schedule to travel. I was going to Europe. I was going to London. I had things to do and I was prepping to do photo shoots and I was just overwhelmed. I had so much work to do and the surgery had gone so badly for me. And I think that I was just starting to feel completely overwhelmed. It was just too much to have this surgery go so wrong.”

Meow!

Bauer-Griffin

Fresh off an “involuntary psychiatric hold” at Cedars-Sinai Medical in July, The Beautiful Life star, 23, is reportedly hoping to kick of her recording career by releasing a disc of original folk-rock songs early next year.

“Music has been a lifesaver for Mischa,” an insider spills to The National Enquirer. “These days whenever she gets depressed or lonely, Mischa scribbles down lyrics, practices chords, and works on her voice. She’s determined to emerge from her crisis with her own CD and an expanded career.”

The London-born Bob Dylan wannabe has immersed herself in songwriting for the LP and is even practicing strumming on the guitar, an instrument she fell in love with during her romance with Rooney rocker Taylor Locke.

“She spends her free time writing and banging out her songs on her acoustic guitar.”

In an interview with Time Out New York, the 23-year-old actress denies that she has been abusing drugs or suffered a mental breakdown as previously reported. Instead, Mischa cites depression and a surgery on wisdom teeth that healed slowly for leaving her out of sorts.

“I went through a tough spot where everything compounded on me, and it was like a perfect storm, like everything was happening to me at once,” she reveals.

“I was down in the dumps about everything there for a while,” she reveals. “Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom about things and have to get the most stressed out just to feel better again. I got completely stressed out and couldn’t handle everything, and now I feel really in control.”

Nonetheless, Mischa believes the severity of her ordeal has been blown out of proportion.

“The funny thing is, if all this happened in New York, no one would care,” she says. “New York lets you be who you are, and people aren’t as judgmental. I’m so glad to be back here.”

The former O.C. star — who was born in Britain and raised in New York — is currently back in the Big Apple for filming on her new CW show.

While most of the series’ stars have come together to support Mischa since a drug stupor reportedly landed her in the psych ward of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center last month, Elle has refused to deal with the young woman’s “drama,” FOX News claims.

“She comes to work, films her scenes and usually flies right back out of the city,” an insider reveals. “Elle is strictly there to work and she doesn’t have time to mentor. She’s not rude, but she knows how to avoid drama.”

A source tells Britain’s Star Magazine that the actress – who was recently released from hospital after being placed under involuntary psychiatric care – was “shocked to tears” when she was told to slim down for her first TV gig since leaving the FOX hit The O.C. several years ago.

“She knows that means they are calling her fat behind her back. She knows she is heavier than she needs to be but to hear it like that… it really shook her. How can Mischa play a model when she’s looking so heavy?” says a tipster

“She’s broken down in tears more than once before shooting. It’s a lot of pressure for someone who is just out of hospital.”

Even before being committed to the psychiatric ward, the ballooning actress’ weight had been yo-yoing for months, reportedly due to drug and alcohol abuse.

“Mischa has a very addictive personality,” says her pal, actress Suzanne Coppin. “She can become addicted to just about anything — booze, cigarettes, food and fame. And when times are tough for her she really stuffs her feelings with food.”

Despite the upsetting news, Mischa is determined to get back in shape as quickly as possible.

The source added: “She’s always been able to lose weight fast. Everyone knows she’s been struggling, so people are just really rooting for her.”

The Beautiful Life premieres next month on The CW.

Mischa has been a staple on the blogosphere since she was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center under a 5150 hold two weeks ago after allegedly telling Los Angeles Police Officers, “I see tree people.”

While Mischa’s worried friends are begging her to check into a rehab facility, the nearly-broke British-born actress is more worried about saving her sinking career. Mischa is scheduled to begin shooting the new CW series The Beautiful Life this Friday, July 31. A trip to inpatient treatment “could be a violation of her contract,” one concerned pal explains.

Instead, Mischa has submitted to show bosses’ demands that she be accompanied at all times by a sobriety counselor —who will guide her along the road to recovery.

“She thinks it’s silly, but she doesn’t have a choice. The producers have put on probation. Any more missteps won’t be tolerated.”