Melissa Joan Hart is cracking open a moment in her past that felt like the universe went off-script. During her appearance on Betches’ Picture Day, the 49-year-old actress revisited a red carpet snapshot with Britney Spears that hides a whole avalanche of behind-the-scenes drama.
In the photo, Hart is smiling beside Spears at the "Drive Me Crazy" premiere. What the camera doesn’t capture is the emotional storm brewing underneath. Hart points out that her eyes were bloodshot, not from partying, not from late-night glam prep, but from sheer emotional overload.
"If you look at my eyes, they're very bloodshot because this was what I would consider, if you read my book, one of the worst days of my life at the time," she confessed.
Fired From 'Scary Movie' Before She Even Got There
While everyone else was inside watching the movie, Hart was gearing up to hop on a flight to Vancouver for her opening-scene role in "Scary Movie."
It was supposed to be a fun cameo spoofing Drew Barrymore’s "Scream" moment. "I was supposed to be this small part in the beginning, that's like the Drew Barrymore knockoff part, but they decided when I did the fitting that I didn't have big enough boobs for that part," she recalls. "I'm driving to the airport and back in those days you had, the cell phone in the limo, and I got a call, and it was like, 'Turn around, go back to your premiere. You've been fired from the movie.'" The role would later go to Carmen Electra.
Oddly, she wasn’t totally devastated. She’d already cried, saying goodbye to her family. Returning to the premiere almost felt like a relief. For about five minutes.
'Sabrina, The Teenage Witch' Might Be Over
The moment she stepped back onto the premiere grounds, her lawyer intercepted her with news that hit even harder than losing "Scary Movie."
Her recent Maxim cover was stirring controversy. "So I was already crying and waiting for everyone to finish the movie and come on over. And when they get there, my lawyer meets up with me first and says, 'Because of your cover of Maxim magazine, you're being fired from your show,'" he said, referring to Melissa's iconic show "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch."
While Hart was ultimately able to hold on to her role in "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" after her racy photo shoot, in that moment, she believed her biggest role to date was over. "So then I really start crying. And then my dad comes and hugs me. And I don't see my dad often, so it's like for him to hug me? I was, like, 'Oh my God, my dad's hugging me.' It was just a dramatic night."
For Hart, "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" wasn’t just a job. It was her defining television role. Hearing that it might be slipping away on the same night she lost a film gig was like a double punch to the heart.
Looking at that photo with Britney Spears now, Hart sees more than a red carpet moment. She sees a night when her world felt like it was cracking open, only to show her what she could survive.
The series was a favorite among young viewers, which translated into multiple Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards wins. Melissa Joan Hart won several awards for Favorite Television Actress thanks to her performance as Sabrina Spellman.
While the show wasn’t a heavy awards-season contender in the traditional sense, it did receive a Primetime Emmy Award as Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Series. The Saturn Awards, which honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror, acknowledged the series as well.
Even outside formal awards, "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" carved out a legacy that most sitcoms only dream of. It became a defining series for ABC’s TGIF lineup, launched Melissa Joan Hart into iconic teen-star status, and influenced a wave of supernatural teen comedies in the early 2000s.
Decades later, the show still thrives in syndication and streaming, and it inspired a darker Netflix reboot that proves Sabrina’s broom has serious staying power.