Mischa Barton wore what looked like a wet T-shirt as she headed to dinner Monday at Beverly Hills eatery Mr. Chow with pal Kim Kardashian. Guess who else was at Mr. Chow on Monday? Reese Witherspoon, but without Rendition costar Jake Gyllenhaal, whom she is rumored to be dating.

Reese Witherspoon has backed out of a big movie in which she was slated to star and produce. The movie, "Bunny Lake Is Missing," was to be a remake of Otto Preminger’s 1965 film about a woman whose daughter disappears from a nursery school. Cops then try to convince the woman that her daughter was a figment of her imagination.

Reports are circulating that Witherspoon did not feel emotionally invested in the film, and that her psyche was fragile in the wake of her divorce from Ryan Phillippe.

A Hollywood source says the problem had nothing to do with emotions. We’re told Reese signed onto the project after being presented with the idea and a draft script. Last week, Reese was presented with what she thought would be a completed script, but turned out to be 80 pages that had major sections of the movie outlined but not written.

As the deadline approached for a summer shooting, Witherspoon exercised her option not to approve the incomplete script and withdrew as the star of the project. Reese worried about people who wouldn’t have a job shooting this summer. "She’s just as disappointed as anybody," the source says. "She’s not working too."

Ryan Phillippe was caught by surprise last night at Winston’s with Nikki Reed. Ryan has tried his best to diffuse rumors he was cheating on Reese Witherspoon who is divorcing Ryan. There’s no denying he’s seeing another woman now. Ryan was not happy.

Ryan Phillippe has been silent about his split from wife Reese Witherspoon since their divorce was announced on October 30, until now.

Phillippe says, "I’m not a perfect person, but I’m not guilty of a lot of the things I have been accused of. My priority is and always has been the health and safety of my family."

Phillippe, 32, and Witherspoon, 30, have a daughter Ava, 7, and son Deacon, 3.

Phillippe will not comment on reports that a relationship with Abbie Cornish, the Australian actress who costars with him in an upcoming film, played a role in the demise of his seven-year marriage to Witherspoon. But his reps vehemently deny other recent allegations of hard partying and drug use. So no comment on the one thing everyone wants to know, "Did he cheat?"

It’s no secret that Phillippe has always enjoyed hitting the clubs with friends. He and Witherspoon "would fight over that kind of thing all the time. He got away with a lot and he knows it," according to a source at a Santa Monica bar that Phillippe used to frequent.

His rep, however, denies it: "Look, he went out, she went out, it wasn’t a point of conflict."

Others who know them say Phillippe often stayed at his Venice office after arguments with Witherspoon, sometimes "for days a time," says the source. "He said she hated that." Maybe he should have spent more time listening and talking with Reese than running away.

Whatever happens next, says a Phillippe pal, "I know they love their kids to death. So they’ll do what they can to keep it from turning ugly."

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe made their first public appearance together, exactly three months after their October 30 split. The estranged couple accompanied daughter Ava to her school play in Brentwood, and brought younger son Deacon along as well.

Sources connected to the former couple say that despite this joint appearance, there is "no way" that the couple is getting back together, but the relationship is "civil" now. Sources say that there was plenty of bad blood at the time they separated, caused in large part by the revelation that another woman appears to have been involved with Ryan, an alleged dalliance that infuriated Reese. Still, it seems that the two actors, married for seven years, are attempting a rapprochement of sorts, at least for their children.

In the couple’s divorce petition, Witherspoon asked the court for joint legal custody of the children, and for primary physical custody. She also asked the court to block any attempt by Phillippe to get spousal support.

All in all Witherspoon sounds like she’s being reasonable, and has the children’s best interest in mind. I rarely say that about anyone. Standing ovation.