Melissa Joan Hart Says Her Maxim Photo Shoot Almost Got Her Sued and Fired From SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH

Melissa Joan Hart is known for her girl-next-door type roles on TV, starting with the Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All, moving on to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and landing on a few other projects since that have kept her on TV. But it was almost all taken from her after a photo shoot landed her in hot water while she was making Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

During a recent interview on the Boy Meets World rewatch podcast Pod Meets World, hosts Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong referred to a photo of Hart posing with Britney Spears at the premiere of the 1999 teen rom-com Drive Me Crazy, and Hart explained that she wasn't as smiley as she seemed, saying, "If you look at my eyes, I'd been crying all evening."

Hart went on to explain everything that was going on with her at that time (via EW):

"I was breaking up with a boy that night because I decided I no longer wanted a relationship with him," she recalled. She added that she had been "up since 4 a.m." doing press, and when she finally arrived at the premiere, she wasn't allowed to leave her car until Spears appeared.

"I had to wait on the red carpet. They wanted me to wait in my car for, like, an hour for Britney to show up so we could do photos together. And I was like, 'Can I just go, start doing the press?' But nope, 'You've got to wait for Britney.'"

Once the photos were taken and the movie began, Hart was "whisked away to a limo" because she was supposed to go shoot the horror spoof Scary Movie in Vancouver.

"I was supposed to be the opening, vivacious, big-breasted one that's murdered or something in the beginning. 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."

But before Hart made it to the airport, she got a call saying she'd been dropped from Scary Movie and should head to a Planet Hollywood after-party instead. That's when the night got really bad.

"While I'm at the party, my lawyer shows up and goes, 'You did a photo shoot 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 talk to the press, don't do anything.' So I get a phone call on my cell phone from my mother, my producer, who was like, what did you do?, 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 said her near-firing was spurred by the Maxim cover line, which read, "Sabrina, your favorite witch without a stitch." She was accused of being in violation of her Archie Comics contract, which stated that she "would never play the character naked." But Hart said they "had no ground to stand on," and after penning an apology letter, she was in the clear.

Still, that resolution was weeks away, and in the moment Hart assumed the worst. After the Drive Me Crazy premiere let out, she mourned her seemingly lost sitcom in her father's arms.

"He comes up to me and goes, 'You okay?' I was like, 'No.' And he hugs me, and 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."

There was at least one bright side to her terrible day, according to Hart: The buzz surrounding her photo shoot boosted interest in Drive Me Crazy. That’s a pretty wild story that just wouldn’t have happened today. At least she was able to return to her job, and her career wasn’t affected moving forward.