Troubled television and film star Mischa Barton has been admitted to hospital in the US following a reported breakdown.

It was reported last night that the actress, whose family hails from Newry, had been placed under an involuntary psychiatric hold after police were called to her LA home this week.

The star reportedly made a non-911 call from her West Hollywood home for a “medical issue”.

LAPD spokeswoman April Harding said: “We responded to her home on a medical issue. We assisted with it. She was removed from her home.”

The star’s representative Craig Schneider issued a statement saying: “Police were involved due to Ms Barton's celebrity status; to ensure her safe transfer to medical treatment for which she remains hospitalised as per the recommendation of her doctor.”

Ms Barton shot to fame as one of the cast of popular TV series The OC, which followed the stormy personal lives of teenagers living in California.

She is also well-known to local audiences as one of the stars of Closing the Ring. The film, directed by Richard Attenborough, was shot in and around Belfast and starred a number of local actors as well as big Hollywood names such as Shirley MacLaine and Neve Campbell.

Earlier this year the actress revealed she's sick of being labelled as American and considers herself British.

“I haven't lived here since I was tiny, but my entire family is British and I've been raised as a Brit,” she said.

“My sister lives and works in London as a barrister, but nobody can get their head round the fact I'm anything but a Hollywood girl. In the US nobody thinks of me as American and here, nobody believes I'm British.”

The 23-year-old also said she tried to lose her accent to “fit in”.

She said: “When I lived in New York I tried really hard to ditch the British accent to fit in. I went to classes and everything. I ended up putting on this terrible ‘Nu Yawk' accent and hid behind that for a while. Now I don't try to hide it so much, but my accent slips all over the place.”