Charmed stars Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs hit back after producer says revealing scenes were ‘bad for the world’

Charmed stars Alyssa Milano and Holly Marie Combs have hit back at a former producer’s comments that the revealing scenes in the show were ‘bad for the world’.

During a recent interview, Krista Vernoff, who was a writer and producer on supernatural drama Charmed, recalled the events that led to her quitting the series in 2004.

Krista, who is an executive producer on Grey’s Anatomy, explained that when she signed up to work on Charmed, there was a heavy focus on ‘girl-power’.

‘I signed on because Charmed was a girl-power show, and about halfway through there was an episode where Alyssa Milano comes out in mermaid pasties and there was a huge spike in male viewership, and then every episode after, the question would come from the network, “How are we getting the girls naked this week?”,’ Krista recollected.

‘And they were throwing money at me, and the number keeps going up, and there’s all this pressure, and all I can think is, “I’m creating something that’s now bad for the world, and I’ve had enough bad for the world in my life”.’

Following the publication of the interview in The Hollywood Reporter, Krista shared a tweet explaining that she didn’t feel that the show was ‘bad for the world’ on the whole, singling out the ‘objectifying notes’ that she received.

‘I want to clarify here for Charmed fans and also for my colleagues from Charmed who I love and admire, that I do not believe that the show was bad for the world,’ she said.

‘I felt that the objectifying notes were bad for the world – and were demoralizing for me. All love to Charmed.’

After seeing Krista’s comments from the interview online, Alyssa, who played Phoebe Halliwell on Charmed for eight years, said on Twitter that it ‘broke her heart’.

‘Well, this absolutely broke my heart. I hope we didn’t make something that was “bad for the world” for eight years,’ the actor wrote.

‘I think we gave permission to a generation of women to be themselves and to be strong and own their sexuality. I’m so proud of what this show meant to so many.’

Holly, who played Alyssa’s on-screen sister Piper Halliwell, responded to her tweet, writing: ‘I can attest 1000% Charmed was not bad for the world. The reasons and people are too long to list. Maybe it was bad for Krista’s world at the time. End story.’

In a follow-up tweet, she added: ‘And the fact that we can still stand up for ourselves and the show and the people who loved it proves this. I never cared what producer or network exec wanted us more naked for their $. And still don’t. We knew how to rally against it and found our own power. And still do. #Facts.’

In response to Krista’s tweet clarifying that her ‘bad for the world’ remark was in reference to the ‘objectifying notes’, Holly replied: ‘You had the power to change that. And fortunately still do now #Rebel.’

In other tweets, Holly said that she was ‘embraced’ on set when she returned to work three months after giving birth following Krista’s exit from the show.

‘I’m sorry Krista’s bts experience was different. Had we been made aware of comments or directions like that we would have loudly disagreed and been “bitches” about it. Unafraid. Undeterred. As always. Widely reported. Universally known. And crazily … still talked about,’ she also said, adding: ‘Also we all chose our outfits or lack thereof.’

Trophy Wife star Michaela Watkins jumped to Krista’s defence on Twitter, explaining that she believes the screenwriter’s words were taken ‘out of context’.

‘I don’t usually wade into waters like this but since I know her well and respect u both – this feels out of context. She loves the show and you particularly for oh so many reasons. She didn’t love how most TV exploited young womens’ bodies. Which was so extra true then…’ she wrote in response to Alyssa and Holly.

In a second tweet, she added: ‘And if the actors felt protected from that in the writing, then I think Krista must deserve a smidge of credit for that is all. Ok. I swim away now.’

Charmed is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.

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