Melissa Joan Hart's racy Maxim cowl almost ended 'Sabrina' contract

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Melissa Joan Hart almost misplaced one in every of her most iconic gigs due to a Maxim journal cowl shoot.

The actress, recognized for beloved '90s sitcoms like "Clarissa Explains It All" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," pivoted to one thing a bit extra mature when she made the choice to do the racy picture shoot in 1999 — not realizing that the transfer would nearly violate her "Sabrina" contract.

Throughout an look on Betches' podcast " Picture Day ," she advised the story behind a photograph of her with Britney Spears on the premiere for "Drive Me Loopy." She identified that her eyes had been bloodshot within the picture as a result of it was "one of many worst days of my life on the time."

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Melissa Joan Hart seen on the "Drive Me Loopy" premiere with Britney Spears in 1999. (Ron Galella)

Hart defined that she'd been crying as a result of she'd left the premiere, the place her household was in attendance, to fly to a different film set. Whereas she was en path to the airport, she received a name that she'd been fired from the movie — she'd been given a cameo in "Scary Film," however the powers that be finally determined that she "did not have sufficiently big boobs for that half."

She was despatched again to the "Drive Me Loopy" premiere, the place her lawyer approached her and mentioned, "Due to your cowl of Maxim journal, you are being fired from your show ."

"So then I actually begin crying," she recalled, calling it a "dramatic night time."

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Hart defined that it was believed she violated her "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" contract together with her Maxim shoot. (Bob D'Amico/Disney Basic Leisure Content material by way of Getty Pictures)

In the end, Hart was in a position to maintain her job on "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" — the difficulty was that, in her unique contract, she'd agreed that the Sabrina character would by no means seem nude or in a manner that implied nudity. Whereas she did the Maxim cowl to advertise "Drive Me Loopy," the journal referred to her as "Sabrina" on its cowl.

As soon as it was made clear that Hart had no data or management over Maxim utilizing the character's title, the difficulty was dropped, and she or he went on to star within the present till it resulted in 2003.

Hart starred in "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" with Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick. (Getty Pictures)

In 2023, she advised Fox Information Digital that regardless of the problems the photoshoot prompted, she doesn't regret it .

"All the things looking back is … Within the rearview mirror, the whole lot seems to be a bit extra distant," she defined.

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Hart beforehand advised Fox Information Digital that she would not remorse her determination to do Maxim. (Steve Granitz/FilmMagic)

"On the time, what felt like panic and, you understand, my profession ending and all these horrible issues, labored out to show into actually good press round a film I had launched."