Proceeds go to provide safe drinking water in Africa

By Matthew B. Zeidman

LONDON (Hollywood Today) 3/23/08 – Mischa Barton may have portrayed a spoiled California teenager on “The O.C.,” but the native Londoner is speaking out to her fellow countrymen in the United Kingdom, encouraging them to switch their bottled water brands in the interest of charity.

Coinciding with the U.N.-created World Day for Water, which fell on Saturday, Barton was named an ambassador for The One Foundation, which uses proceeds from its bottled water brand to provide clean drinking water to impoverished Africans. The company also produces a brand of condom, which it donates to anti-HIV organizations in Africa. Currently, the One brand of bottled water is only available for sale in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Though born in England, Barton, 22, moved to New York in 1992 and was granted U.S. citizenship in 2006. She is best known for her career-defining role—naïve, but sensitive rich girl Marissa Cooper—on Fox’s “The O.C.,” which ran from 2003 to 2007. She decided to leave the show after it third season ended in 2006 and was written off the popular drama via a fatal car crash.