Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Once Saved Rachel Bilson and Adam Brody

adam brody rachel bilson the OC warner bros everett collection

(Image credit: Warner Bros/The Everett Collection)

Sure, boyfriends are great, but so are the Olsen twins. And sometimes, in your greatest hour of need, it will be the latter that saves you—not Adam Brody—from the crushing wave of teen fame. Just ask Rachel Bilson.

If you're wondering how such an occurrence happens, look no further than Welcome to the O.C., an oral history of the iconic teen series from television critic Alan Sepinwall and series co-creators, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. In the book—released on Tuesday, November 28—Bilson recounts a particularly harried time during her time as a teen superstar, at a taping of the staple MTV countdown show TRL of the early 2000s, also known as Total Request Live.

The show filmed at MTV’s NYC offices at 1515 Broadway, smack dab in the middle of Times Square, making it a huge attraction for tourists already in the area, especially when a celebrity was on (which was nearly every day). And—having worked in this very office building and seen the crush of excited fans firsthand—we can confirm the chaotic, loud, and at-times scary energy fans can create when trying to catch a glimpse of their favorite famous people exiting the office.

According to Bilson, the scene was madness, which makes sense given the attention and hullabaloo surrounding Bilson and her IRL/TV boyfriend, Adam Brody, who came with Bilson for her appearance alongside Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen—both of whom are no strangers to having huge mobs of fans. Which is probably why they knew exactly what to do when a bevy of teens descended upon Bilson and Brody when they left.

"The Olsen twins rescued me and threw me in their car," Bilson explained in the book, unsure how, exactly, they managed to do so, given the chaos of the moment. Which is also probably how and why she ended up accidentally leaving without her boyfriend.

"I left Brody behind because I was so nervous and didn’t know what to do,” Bilson explained. “And they were like, 'Don’t you need to get your boyfriend?' And I was like, 'Oh, yeah, we’ve got to go get him.'" As for the rest of the behind the scenes drama that undoubtedbly unfolded for the stars of the show? You're going to have to read the book for that.

In the meantime, enjoy this anecdote about a couple of primetime TV princesses saving the day, and also Adam Brody.

Alicia Lutes is a freelance writer, essayist, journalist, humorist, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. She has written extensively on culture, entertainment, the craft of comedy, and mental health. Her work has been featured in places such as Vulture, Playboy, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, MTV, Cosmopolitan, Rotten Tomatoes, Bustle, Longreads, and more. She was also the creator/former host of the web series Fangirling, and currently fosters every single dog she can.