Melissa Joan Hart was the queen of the '90s, starring in Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina
The Teenage Witch, and Drive Me Crazy.
But despite appearing on various shows like Melissa and Joey since then, she kind of fell
off the radar.
But why?
She was fun, talented, and charming.
Where'd she go?
Here's why Hollywood won't cast Melissa Joan Hart anymore.
Power broker
As much as she loves acting, Hart enjoys behind-the-camera work even more.
She told Rare that "My fondest memories really came from what happened behind-the-scenes.
Just having the privilege of working with some amazing people in front of and behind
the camera."
That explains why she's been spending so much of her time producing rather than acting.
Besides executive producing dozens of episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the entire
run of Melissa and Joey, she has also executive produced four TV movies as well.
Legal issues
In 2011, Hart's former talent manager, Kieran Maguire, filed a lawsuit against the actress
for alleged unpaid commissions.
Maguire claimed that Hart hired him in 2006 when her acting career was "dwindling," and
that she made an oral agreement to pay him 10 percent commission for her work.
But according to Maguire, once he helped her get the Melissa and Joey gig in 2010, she
fired him and refused to pay him commissions beyond the first season.
They settled the lawsuit in 2012, but that's certainly not the kind of rep that makes you
popular in Hollywood.
Faded glory
Hart's efforts to find new opportunities may be held back by the fact that everyone is
constantly trying to get her to relive her glory days.
She told E! News,
"There's a lot of talk about a Sabrina reboot.
I feel like almost every day, somebody's calling me about it.
Would we do it?
Should we do it?
How do we do it?
I think the thing about reboots is they're really hard to do.
They're hard to do right.
I think sometimes it's better to just leave it in the past unless you do it really, really
great."
Still she hasn't ruled out the possibility of returning to Clarissa Explains It All,
telling Entertainment Weekly,
"I'd be open to it.
I don't want to say no, but at the same time I'm not too thrilled about the idea; as with
any reboot, it has to really be done right.
I think with Fuller House, they've taken a great approach with it."
So she's the one who thought Fuller House was good!
That explains it...all.
She's done with Hollywood culture
In her 2013 tell-all book, Melissa Explains It All, Hart explained that she got burnt
out on the Hollywood lifestyle a long time ago.
She wrote that she "experimented with weed, Ecstasy, mushrooms and mescaline for about
a year and a half," but eventually decided it just wasn't who she wanted to be.
She wrote, "I was kind of running with a bad crowd.
I just didn't enjoy taking drugs.
I don't like the loss of control."
Her priority is parenting
Once Hart became a mom, work took a backseat to parenthood.
The mother of three boys told Us Weekly in November 2016,
"I have mom guilt that I'm here right now and I didn't put my kids on the school bus…I
didn't spend enough time with this one…didn't pack a healthy-enough lunch.
I threw away some toys that they love.
You really have this guilt every single day, and it eats away at you that you're not a
good person and you can't do it right."
She also told People that working in Los Angeles was tough when her family was back home in
Connecticut.
"I just had the last six weeks off and I got to be home.
Now I'm going to go back to the West coast for the next five months.
My kids are in school so they have to be here — it is really hard…We're just taking
it a month at a time.
I see them every other week.
It's difficult but at least I can also focus on work and then go home and be a mom."
She's outspoken
Hollywood stars often use their celebrity as a platform to discuss political issues
important to them, and Hart is no different.
What is a little different is the fact that Hart has supported more conservative candidates
and issues than most Hollywood folks, backing Republican candidate Mitt Romney for president
in 2012, and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson in 2016, even chairing Johnson's Connecticut
campaign.
"We have a chance to make a difference, but only if we get out and vote.
I'm supporting Gary Johnson and Bill Weld."
And she's also been outspoken about her religious views.
She told the Chicago Sun Times,
"Today, there are a lot of Christians being persecuted for their faith, far beyond the
freedoms this country was founded on…In the past, mainstream Christians were members
of what we could call the big powerhouse religion at the time — and may have been doing a
fair amount of persecuting minority religions.
But now those Christians feel their faith is something that is trampled on or ignored.
Now the tables have turned."
Those opinions have made her a lightning rod for controversy, something the studios and
networks might rather avoid.
How she can turn it around
As the success of Fuller House demonstrates, there's a huge market for '90s nostalgia.
Reprising her iconic roles of Sabrina or Clarissa, even just for a reunion show, could be hugely
bankable for Hart — and help set her up for another run of television dominance.
Sounds like it could be magic...
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