From here:

New York Post 9/27/99

MELISSA Joan Hart wants to be taken more seriously, so she's decided to become a sex kitten.

Somehow, the wholesome star of "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" has gotten it into her head that if she wants to launch a movie career, she has to pose nearly naked in mens' magazines and respond impishly to questions about her sex life.

Here's some advice for parents of daughters who idolize Sabrina: Keep them away from the newsstands this month or they'll see their idol posing topless on the cover of Maxim, which promises more pictures inside of "Your favorite witch without a stitch!"

She's also on the cover of Bikini wearing a bikini - her thumbs hooked suggestively into the waistband of her bikini bottoms next to a headline that reads, "Sabrina's all grown up ... and she has something to show you."

Evidently, in Hollywood these days, this is how an actress earns a reputation as a serious young woman.

Inside Bikini, Hart, 23, recalls how she drank 18 shots of tequila in two hours on her 21st birthday and mischievously discloses that "I like to be as naked as possible." In Maxim, she explains the difference between everyday sex and great sex. (Sorry, we can't print the answer.) Also, in Maxim, the 21st-birthday tequila binge is down to 12 shots, but who's counting?

Certainly not her mother, Paula Hart, who's also the executive producer of "Sabrina."

"It makes me a little uncomfortable as her mother," she says of the sexy photos of her daughter in two mens' magazines. "But as the executive producer of the show, maybe it will bring in more male viewers."

Good point, Mom. But why does your daughter have to show so much skin? Says she, "What we're doing is just showing people that she is a grownup." And how!

You're also putting your daughter on display for men who like to ogle 23-year-old women. That's how she made the cover of Maxim in the first place.

"We have a very vocal readership," explains Maxim co-editor Jim Kaminsky. "And one of the things they always write in is who they want to see on our cover and oddly enough - it was surprising the hell out of us - Melissa Joan Hart kept on coming up over and over again for a year. ...

"We contacted her publicist and her agent and they were happy to play ball with us. Melissa is interested in broadening her range. She's got an adult movie coming out."

Whoa, Jim, hold on there. The movie isn't exactly "adult."

The movie - called "Drive Me Crazy" - is due to open this week. Her mother describes it as a teen romantic comedy in which Melissa plays one of the teens. It's rated PG-13, which means some of Melissa's younger fans won't get to see it.

Still, Mother Hart vows that her daughter's transformation from teen TV star to magazine-cover pinup girl won't alienate her young fans and their families - a pretty neat trick if she can pull it off.

"We'll never abandon them - never, never!" she declares. "I do believe Melissa's very true to her audience. If you go see this movie, the worst you see her is she takes off her shirt and she's got a black bra on. You're not going to see her running around naked in a movie."

How does ABC feel about the star of their biggest Friday-night family sitcom posing suggestively on the cover of mens' magazines? No one would get on the phone to talk about it Friday. They were all too busy cringing.