Melissa Joan Hart Revealed the Controversy Surrounding Her Scandalous 1999 'Maxim' Cover Had This Surprising Result

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In 1999, before Instagram was ever an app, actresses often posed on the cover of men’s magazines to promote their movies and TV shows. That’s exactly what Melissa Joan Hart did to promote her starring role in the teen rom-com, Drive Me Crazy, but the photoshoot almost resulted in her losing her job on the TV shows, Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

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Hart revealed on the podcast, Pod Meets World, that the red-carpet premiere for the movie was the “worst day” of her life. In addition to breaking up with her boyfriend and being fired from Scary Movie for unknown reasons, her lawyer showed up unexpectedly at the after-party to ask her about the Maxim shoot. (See the cover HERE.) “And 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.

Her mom then called to ask her what went on at the photoshoot. “I’m like: ‘I don’t know, whatever my publicist told me to do on the red carpet or at the photoshoot!'” Hart continued. “I did a photoshoot for Maxim, it’s Maxim, of course you’re going to be in your underwear.” That’s when she learned she was being fired from the show — not for posing nude, though. It was because the magazine wrote, “Sabrina, your favorite witch without a stitch” on the cover. A clever tagline, but it was a breach of contract issue for Hart because the network was worried fans would think “Sabrina” was posing in the nude.

‘Drive Me Crazy’

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But obviously, Hart had “no control over what they wrote on the cover,” so it only took was an “apology letter” and all was forgiven. But the controversy of “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” created huge buzz for Drive Me Crazy which turned out to be “a huge success.” The chaos from the network’s threatened lawsuit and the discourse over Hart’s “sexy” image made her a pop-culture icon and a top box-office draw that year.

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity women who have posed for Playboy.

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