Melissa Joan Hart Says ‘Maxim’ Cover Led to Network Threatening to Sue and Fire Her From ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’

Melissa Joan Hart is opening up about nearly getting fired from her starring role in the 1990s ABC sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

The 47-year-old actress shed light on the incident during an appearance on the latest episode of a Boy Meets World podcast hosted by three of the series’ cast members, Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle.

In 1999, Hart parlayed her Sabrina success into a starring role in the teen comedy Drive Me Crazy. On the night of the movie’s premiere, Hart landed in hot water with ABC executives after they found out the then-23-year-old actress had posed for the cover of Maxim. While celebrating her new film at a party at Planet Hollywood, Hart learned she was being “sued and fired” from Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

“While I’m at the party, my lawyer shows up and goes, ‘You did a photo shoot for Maxim magazine?” Hart recalled. “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.'”

She continued, “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.”