Melissa Joan Hart reveals why she was almost sued and fired from Sabrina the Teenage Witch-Pierra Willix-Entertainment – Metro

Melissa Joan Hart has explained she was nearly fired from Sabrina (Picture: Phillip Faraone/ WireImage,)

Melissa Joan Hart has explained that a decision to pose for a men’s magazine almost led to her being fired from her starring role in Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

From 1996 until 2003, the actress played the titular character in the teen series, which followed Sabrina as she found out she had magical powers on her 16th birthday.

While the show ended up running for seven seasons, it nearly came to an end in 1999 after the actress posed for Maxim to promote her movie, Drive Me Crazy.

Now Melissa, 47, has detailed the stressful situation she found herself in after being told her role in Sabrina might be slipping through her fingers.

At the height of the show’s popularity, Melissa starred alongside Adrien Grenier in the romantic comedy movie and had stripped off to promote it.

But it was while at the New York premiere for the film that she was told she was going to not only be fired from Sabrina, but was also about to be sued.

The actress starred in the show from 1996 until 2003 (Picture: Moviestore/REX/Shutterstock)

Reflecting on what unfolded, she’s now labelled what unfolded as the ‘worst day’ of her life.

‘[At the premiere] my lawyer shows up and goes: “You did a photoshoot for Maxim magazine?”. I’m like: “Yes, I did.” They’re like: “Well, you’re being sued and fired from your show, so don’t take to the press, don’t do anything”,’ she recalled.

Soon after Melissa then received a phone call for her mum asking what had happened.

‘I’m like: “I don’t know, whatever my publicist told me to do on the red carpet or at the photoshoot!”

‘I did a photoshoot for Maxim, it’s Maxim, of course you’re going to be in your underwear,’ she added when speaking on the latest episode of Pod Meets World podcast.

But she nearly lost the job after posing for a Maxim photoshoot to promote another project (Picture: ABC/Viacom/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)

She continued: ‘They’re like: “We’re being fired from the show,” I’m like, oh my god, so I’m crying, then the movie gets out and everyone shows up”.’

Despite the uncertainty about what was going to happen to her career, Melissa said soon after everything was cleared up as the people who wanted to take her to court ‘had no ground to stand on’.

Explaining exactly what had been the issue, she explained: ‘What happened was the magazine wrote “Sabrina, your favourite witch without [a stitch]…” I’d never heard of someone being on the cover of a magazine and not using their name, they used Sabrina.

‘In my Archie Comics contract, it said I would never play the character [of Sabrina] naked…so hhere they were thinking I’m in breach because I’m playing the character.

‘No, that was supposed to be me promoting my movie, it wasn’t supposed to be a character. I had no control over what they wrote on the cover.’

After writing an apology letter Melissa said the problem was ‘all gone’, but admitted the scandal around the cover shoot ended up helping drive significant publicity for the movie.

Breaking down the conversations that happened at the time, she said: ‘[They were discussing] “Can Melissa be sexy? She’s 23, is she allowed to be sexy? What’s going on here? Is it allowed? Is it OK? Why is she being fired from her show?” And all the drama. It made for Drive Me Crazy to come out and be a huge success.’

In the interview, Melissa also explained how that night wasn’t without any other drama, as she also found out she had been fired from her role in Scary Movie and had broken up with her boyfriend earlier in the day.

Last year Melissa spoke on the Unzipped podcast about the impact of that shoot, sharing that she later said no to an offer from Playboy after her dad and brother previously had ‘people coming up to them’, showing them her Maxim cover.

Sabrina The Teenage Witch is streaming on Prime Video.

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