Melissa Joan Hart Reveals She Was Almost Fired From ‘Sabrina’ Over ‘Maxim’ Photo Shoot

Melissa Joan Hart just revealed her less-than-magical near-firing from Sabrina the Teenage Witch that came after the actress posed in her underwear for a steamy Maxim magazine cover photo shoot. The actress, now 47, opened up about “the worst day of [her] life” during a recent episode of Pod Meets World, revealing she was almost “sued and fired” from her role in the ’90s sitcom in 1999. 

Hart recalled the ordeal to hosts Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong when the Boy Meets World alum referenced a photo of her with Britney Spears at the 1999 premiere of Drive Me Crazy, in which the Melissa & Joey alum said you can tell she had been “crying all evening,” in part due to a long day of press, but mainly because she had planned on “breaking up with a boy that night” that she had been dating.

After waiting for the shot with Spears, Hart recalled being taken away in a limo to go shoot Scary Movie in Vancouver. “I was supposed to be the opening, vivacious, big-breasted one that’s murdered or something in the beginning,” she remembered. “And I was put in a limo, and I was taken away, and I had just broken up with my boyfriend while we were in the movie, and I’m crying and I’m upset.”

Before she made it to the airport, Hart got a call telling her she’d been cut from Scary Movie and to go to an afterparty instead. “While I’m at the party, my lawyer shows up and goes, ‘You did a photo shoot for Maxim magazine?’” Hart said. “I’m like, ‘Yes, I did.’ They’re like, ‘Well, you’re being sued and fired from your show, so don’t talk to the press, don’t do anything.’” It wasn’t long before Hart’s mother and producer called her asking her what she had done, “And I was like, ‘I don’t know, whatever my publicist told me to do at the photo shoot. I did a photo shoot for Maxim! It’s Maxim, of course you’re gonna be in your underwear.”

Hart explained that the Maxim cover line, “Sabrina, your favorite witch without a stitch,” was what caused the upset, as she was accused of being in violation of her Archie Comics contract, in which she promised to “never play the character naked.” Hart recalled bawling in her father’s arms after the Drive Me Crazy premiere: “I was crying even harder because my dad is hugging me; I’m being fired from my show; I was just fired from the movie; and I just broke up with my boyfriend.” Luckily for Hart, lawyers determined there was “no ground to stand on” with the contract violation allegations, and after writing an apology letter, she was fine to continue playing the character through the show’s 2003 finale.