Michael Silberkleit takes action

This page is to reproduce all of the media material based around the recent Maxim/Bikini appearances.


17th November:

From here:

Andrew Smith writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service and can be reached at capncomics@aol.com or on his Web site at www.captaincomics.net.

From Time to Time: Nando's in-depth look at the 20th century

(November 17, 1999 12:23 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Captain Comics, your intrepid correspondent, has been watching with keen interest as comics have found themselves in the news:

ITEM! Archie Comics is really peeved with Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.

Actually, it's Melissa Joan Hart, who plays the spunky sorceress on TV, that is the object of their ire. The actress appeared in the October issues of Maxim and Bikini magazines in various states of undress - and had some frank remarks to make about sex and drinking games.

This did not sit well with Archie Publisher Michael Silberkleit, according to the Sept. 29 New York Post. Rightfully proud of the Archie line's reputation for wholesomeness, Silberkleit has demanded that Hart apologize publicly or leave the ABC series. According to the Post, Silberkleit believes the saucy siren's remarks have damaged his company's squeaky-clean image and violates the Sabrina licensing contract.

"She can say whatever she wants as Melissa but she can't say it as a representative of my trademarks," quoth the publisher in the Post.

The Captain is wholly in sympathy with Silberkleit, as he admires the Archie line for all the things that it is - upbeat, funny, wholesome - and all the things that it isn't - violent, superhero-obsessed, grim and gritty.

On the other hand, though, this is still the land of the free. If Hart thinks that shucking her robes is good for her career - though that's hard to imagine - then unless it specifically violates her contract, or she acts inappropriately as a spokesman for "Sabrina," I don't see that Archie Comics can stop her. Fire her, sure, but muzzle her, no.

Silberkleit has every right to protect his trademarks and his company's reputation. But I don't think he can protect the actress from her own bad judgment.

So far the Hart camp has intimated that it hopes to settle things outside the courtroom and the newspapers. Silberkleit does not seem so inclined. Stay tuned, sports fans!


11th October:

From here:

Bad Witch! Bad Witch!

Another StarGazing reader in Omaha (we're big there) writes: "Dear StarGazing: What's your problem? Why can't you print anything positive about Melissa Joan Hart? (Expletive) you! Nebraska Football No. 1!"

Actually, we were just reading the TV Web site The Gist, which points out some hypocrisy surrounding the star of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch."

Readers playing along at home may recall that Hart recently posed all sexylike in some testosterone drenched male-skewed magazines and talked about (gasp!) sex. This prompted Archie Comics' Michael Silberkleit to ask Hart to leave the show.

The Gist points out, however, that two other Archie characters, Betty and Veronica, all the time traipse about in skimpy bikinis with the sole purpose of pitching woo with Archie and Reggie.

Silberkleit maintains that Hart's new image doesn't jibe with the wholesome appeal of the comic book character, which Archie Comics owns.


5th October:

From here:

Melissa Joan Hart Survey

Melissa Joan Hart been getting some flack for a recent image makeover. The star of the TV show Sabrina, The Teenage Witch and the movie Drive Me Crazy has made some appearances in the magazines Maxim and Bikini that have some people hot under the collar.

The average guy is hot under the collar because Ms. Hart is wearing nothing more than some small lingerie and some carefully placed sheets and arms. In the accompanying interviews she describes her sex life and says she'd consider posing for Playboy.

Michael Silberkleit, the publisher of Archie Comics Publications and the owner of the Sabrina trademark, is angry about her image makeover. He says, "If Ms. Hart wants to change her image, she must wait until after her contract with Viacom expires and refrain from associating our Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, character with her personal endorsement of binge drinking, participation in pornography, and discussions about sex."

Is Michael right? Sure Melissa's really in her twenties, but she does play a teenage character on a show aimed at kids. Should she have waited until she had left the show? Vote now or check the results.

Go here to vote.


3rd October:

From here:

From the Newsweek issue dated October 11, 1999

Out of character: Melissa Joan Hart in this month's Bikini magazine
(Marc Baptiste)

Maximum Exposure

It's only natural that Melissa Joan Hart would want to get away from her G-rated image as TV's "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." After all, she's 23. But Archie Comics, which owns the rights to the Sabrina character, was spooked by the bare witch's sizzling photos in this month's Bikini and Maxim magazines. "There are guidelines for portraying our character," says publisher Michael Silberkleit, who wants Hart booted off her broomstick if she doesn't issue an apology. "Everyone should be portrayed as virgins. No nudity, no drinking, no sex. We promise parents that our characters wear their seat belts." Needless to say, Hart wasn't wearing her seat belt -- or much else -- in the sexy snaps. So how is Hart dealing with the controversy? "Actually, a couple of [endorsement] deals have fallen apart," she admits. Still, the actress remains unapologetic and has issued a statement saying that she'd like to resolve the issue "privately." But Silberkleit says that if she wants to save her job, she'll have to talk soon. And not just to that cat.


3rd October:

From here:

Sabrina Publisher Says Burn the Witch.

Sep. 30, 1999 ... The man who controls Archie Comics, publisher Michael Silberkleit, is extremely ticked at the star of his "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" series, Melissa Joan Hart, and has demanded that the independent minded Melissa be fired. Lately, our favorite witch has been appearing in magazines (Maxim and others) not dressed enough to suit the head warlock. As her sexy image grows and she does more open, honest interviews about her personal life, including views on sexual conduct, Ms. Hart apparently threatens her virginal contract with Viacom. If Melissa is tied to the stake by her boss, there's no word on who would take her place. We can only assume it will have to be some young actress who is willing to live the chaste life and give up all rights to her personal freedom. And you thought slavery was dead.


1st October:

from here:

Sabrina Star Too Sexy

No more nude photo sessions for you, young lady.

That's the message being sent to Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, star Melissa Joan Hart, who's under fire for trying to bust out of her squeaky-clean TV image.

The all-grown-up-now star has participated in revealing photo shoots and interviews in men's magazines Maxim and Bikini to distance herself from the twinkly Sabrina. That image makeover doesn't sit well with the publisher of Archie Comics, which gave birth to the good witch in the first place and still owns the Sabrina character.

In a letter to Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, which produces the ABC show, publisher Michael Silberkleit of Archie Comics Publications, says Hart's comments about having sex and playing Sabrina drinking games have damaged the wholesome image of the Sabrina character, reports the New York Post.

Silberkleit wants Viacom to force Hart and her mother, Paula, who's an executive producer of the sitcom, to apologize for this out-of-character sexiness or be forced from the show.

"If Ms. Hart wants to change her image, she must wait until after her contract with Viacom expires and refrain from associating our Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, character with her personal endorsement of binge drinking, participation in pornography, and discussions about sex," Silberkleit wrote in a letter faxed yesterday to Redstone. "I have been personally embarrassed by Melissa's interview and posing practically nude in Maxim."

In the magazine stories, Hart poses provocatively in swimsuits and her underwear. She also speaks frankly about sex and drinking, even telling Maxim about a Sabrina drinking game "Whenever the cat talks, take a shot. And that's quite often; you can be pretty wasted after half an hour!" she says.

We should point out that nearly every show on TV has its own drinking game (i.e., take a slug when Buffy shows her bra strap, when ER's Benton frowns, and so on), but not all are so publicly endorsed by their stars.

Silberkleit claims such unwholesome statements violate the contract under which Viacom has licensed the Sabrina character, and he is also peeved over Hart's Maxim cover, which bears the phrase "Sabrina: Your favorite witch without a stitch."

"She can say whatever she wants as Melissa, but she can't say it as a representative of my trademarks," Silberkleit tells the Post.

"It's my livelihood, plus it's a 60-year-old image of decency and wholesome family entertainment," he adds.

An attorney for Archie Comics also faxed demands to James Goodman, vice president of business affairs for Los Angeles-based Viacom Productions, saying that "Viacom immediately terminate Melissa Joan Hart's and Paula Hart's involvement with the Sabrina trademark and property" unless Melissa admits publicly that the magazine articles "were a poor exercise of judgment," agrees not to do anything like them again, and "agrees to voluntarily participate in an anti-drinking campaign."

Neither Viacom nor ABC have publicly responded yet to Silberkleit's ultimatum.

As for Hart, she's trying her luck on the big screen in Drive Me Crazy, out Oct. 1.


1st October:

From here:

WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?: The other day, we reported that Melissa Joan Hart had some scary times shooting her new "Drive Me Crazy" movie. We find the following wire report even more scary: When Paula Hart, the mother of the "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" star, was asked about the fact that Melissa is featured nude in the current Maxim magazine, she responded, "It makes me a little uncomfortable, but as executive producer of the show, maybe it will bring in more male viewers." So would renaming the show "Sabrina, The Teenage Floozy," but is that really the message you want to send to "Sabrina's" young audience?


1st October:

From here:

'Sabrina' Star's Toil and Trouble
By Lisa de Moraes

Thursday, September 30, 1999; Page C09

Turns out, "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" star Melissa Joan Hart doesn't need all those witchy powers to get into pots of trouble; she's more than capable of getting in a jam all by herself.

The publisher of Archie Comics has demanded that Hart be removed as the star of the wholesome ABC prime-time family show unless she publicly apologizes for her nearly naked photo shoot and interview in the October issue of guy magazine Maxim.

"What Melissa does as Melissa Joan Hart is none of my business . . . [but] what she says and does as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is very much my business because it's my property," Michael J. Silberkleit told The TV Column yesterday. Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a property of Archie Comics. And ABC's sitcom, which is produced by Viacom and based on the comic-book character, is the No. 1 prime-time show among kids ages 2-11.

So you can imagine how steamed Silberkleit is over the Maxim cover that sports a picture of a clothing-deprived Hart over which are the words: "SABRINA, Your Favorite Witch Without a Stitch."

Inside the issue--which just happens to hit the stands at about the same time as Hart's new movie, "Drive Me Crazy," opens--are more peekaboo photos and a Q&A with the "Sabrina" star, in which she answers such questions as: "What's your favorite 'Sabrina' drinking game?"

The 23-year-old Hart confides it's a game in which you "take a shot" whenever the series's talking cat says a line. "And that's quite often--you can be pretty wasted after half an hour!" she assures the interviewer.

Great training, no doubt, for her 21st birthday, during which, she tells Maxim, she downed 12 tequila shots in two hours. Which, in turn, was perfect training for that week of binge drinking in Cabo, Mexico, with a dozen girlfriends, which she also details for Maxim readers. "Let's just say everybody knew about 'the American girls' when we left," she tells Maxim. There are also some instructive tips from Hart, such as "the difference between everyday sex and great sex."

"I would be surprised if Melissa Joan Hart's contract with Viacom allows her to engage in and advocate dangerous and immoral activities while she is playing the part of our character," Silberkleit hissed in a letter to Viacom Chairman and CEO Sumner Redstone.

"If Ms. Hart wants to change her image, she must wait until after her contract with Viacom expires and refrain from associating our Sabrina the Teenage Witch character with her personal endorsement of binge drinking, participation in pornography and discussions about sex," he added.

In fact, on the Archie Comics Web site, the company promises parents that all its characters are virgins and there's no drinking of alcohol.

ABC and a rep for Viacom Productions declined to comment on Hart's antics. But via a publicist, Hart said yesterday that "in the tradition of Archie Comics, we have always presented Sabrina as a positive role model for children. It has never been my intention to do anything that would compromise this character I love so much."

Hart's publicist said she prefers to address "the concerns of Archie Comics Publications" privately rather than in the press. But Silberkleit said late yesterday that neither he nor his attorneys had heard from Hart or anyone representing her.

He wants her off the show unless she agrees to make a public apology for her appearance in Maxim, as well as in the publication Bikini, which features her in a similar state of barely dressedness and also includes references to her "Sabrina" role. He says her quasi-contrite comment issued via her publicist doesn't count.

And, for good measure, he's also insisting that she "voluntarily" agree to participate in an anti-drinking public service announcement campaign


1st October:

From here:

Tarted-up Hart draws 'Sabrina' fire
By Stephen Schaefer, USA TODAY

A witch, bewildered: Melissa Joan Hart defends showing a racier side, as she did in 'Maxim' magazine.

NEW YORK - Melissa Joan Hart, TV's teen-age witch Sabrina, is finding out what it's like when others are, well, witchy.

To promote Drive Me Crazy, a sweet PG-13 teen comedy that opens Friday, Hart posed provocatively for magazine covers, namely Maxim and Bikini, targeted at the testosterone set with tag lines like "Your favorite witch without a stitch!"

A "nasty" feature in the New York Post Monday slammed the 23-year-old, wondering what ABC thinks about its family-sitcom star's suggestive poses. The piece left Hart more amused than angry, "but my mom and the lawyers were looking into it," she says.

Then on Wednesday, the publisher of Archie Comics, which owns the Sabrina character, stepped in.

Michael Silberkleit called for Hart (and her mother, Paula Hart, who is executive producer of the sitcom) to be booted from the show unless she apologizes for the sexy spreads. He says Hart is violating the contract under which Viacom has licensed the Sabrina character.

"If Ms. Hart wants to change her image, she must wait until after her contract with Viacom expires and refrain from associating our Sabrina the Teenage Witch character with her personal endorsement of binge drinking, participation in pornography and discussions about sex," Silberkleit wrote in a letter faxed to Viacom chief Sumner Redstone, the Post reported.

ABC and Viacom had no comment Wednesday. Hart told USA TODAY on Monday after the initial attack: "I'd like to set the record straight. I have a TV show and I love it, and I have an audience I want to stay true to and (show) the utmost respect for.

"I also have my career and myself." The Crazy publicity wasn't a premeditated effort at " 'I'm going to be sexy! And adult!' " she says. "They asked me to be on covers."

In photo shoots, she continues, "you want people to get to know you. You exaggerate an aspect, almost like being a character, playing undress up. I got to (un)dress up and be Cindy Crawford for a day."

Her colleagues aren't shocked, she says. "Everyone else is blown away because they only see me as Sabrina."

And she defends the Maxim and Bikini articles in which she discusses downing a dozen tequilas on her 21st birthday. Besides, she says, "I don't think teen-agers will pick up these magazines.

"People are digging and trying to find things," she says, rolling her eyes.

"I'm a pretty open person; I don't have much to hide."


1st October

From here:

SILBERKLEIT SOUNDS OFF ON SABRINA

On Sunday evening, Michael Silberkleit, publisher of Archie Comics, was watching the ABC movie, Sabrina, Down Under, with his wife and 8-year-old daughter. The next day, he picked up the latest issue of Maxim magazine, featuring Sabrina star Melissa Joan Hart. His daughter had enjoyed the TV movie, but he wasn't about to let her see the magazine.

"I was appalled at what I saw. What she did in the magazine, is she is talking as Sabrina the Teenage Witch," Silberkleit told the Continuum's Billie Rae Bates. "She's talking about binge drinking ... the difference between everyday sex and good sex ... Anything she does as Melissa Joan Hart is her business, but the article was really as Sabrina."

The spread features a bikini-ed Hart talking about her lifestyle, referencing sex and Tequila shots and a wild trip to Mexico with girlfriends.

"The first question is, are you a good witch or a bad witch," Silberkleit said as he read excerpts from the magazine article, "and she says that's a tough one ... This is all done as Sabrina, and I'm telling you, my main thing is, if she wants to talk as Melissa, that's fine. If she wants to talk as Sabrina, she's gotta say the things that are within our guidelines."

Silberkleit fired off a fax to two officials at Viacom, which licenses Sabrina, an Archie property that made her debut in 1962, and which produces the two TV series featuring the popular character. Hart plays the teen witch in the live-action ABC series and voices the two aunt witches in the animated Disney series on UPN.

Silberkleit said that Archie Comic Publications, which his father helped found, asked for an official apology regarding the magazine spread. They've also asked Hart to participate in an anti-drinking campaign.

"We have a responsibility to the millions and millions of kids who buy our comic books," he said. "When something like this comes out, it gets me very upset. ... The thing that I think would turn this into a positive spin would be to do a national campaign against kids drinking. ... We don't want kids or anyone under drinking age to drink ... Let's be spokespeople."

Silberkleit said he worries that Hart's openness has endangered a nonviolence campaign Archie Comic Publications launched after the Littleton, Colo., incident. "We're working on this campaign very diligently, and what she's done could be very harmful to our efforts," he said.

Silberkleit noted that Archie characters have been spokespeople for numerous social issues over the years.

"We are committed to providing wholesome entertainment," he said. "Archie's management was the driving force behind the formation of the Comics Magazine Association of America in 1954 ... All of our books carry the comics code seal. We're the only publisher that can say that ... We've built up trust with parents for the last 50 years."

A Viacom representative said the company has no comment. The magazine features the interview on its website, www.maximmag.com


30th September:

SABRINA PUBLISHER WANTS MELISSA FIRED

Archie Comics publisher Michael Silberkleit, who owns the Sabrina, the Teenage Witch character, is demanding that Melissa Joan Hart be fired from the TV series unless she apologies for appearing nearly nude in Maxim and Bikini magazines and giving equally provocative interviews to the men's publications. Today's (Wednesday) New York Post reported that Silberkleit has dispatched a letter to Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone saying in part: "If Ms. Hart wants to change her image, she must wait until after her contract with Viacom expires and refrain from associating our Sabrina the Teenage Witch character with her personal endorsement of binge drinking, participation in pornography and discussions about sex. ... I have been personally embarrassed by Melissa's interview and posing practically nude in Maxim."


30th September:

And from here:

SABRINA TOLD: SAY SORRY, OR SO LONG
By ADAM BUCKMAN

The publisher of Archie Comics wants Melissa Joan Hart to be booted from "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" unless she apologizes for her sexy picture spreads in two mens' magazines.

In a sharp letter to Sumner Redstone - chairman of Viacom, which produces "Sabrina" - publisher Michael Silberkleit of Mamaroneck-based Archie Comics Publications, says Melissa's comments about having sex and playing "Sabrina" drinking games have damaged the wholesome image of the Sabrina character. Archie Comics owns the Sabrina character.

He's calling on Viacom to dump Melissa and her mother, Paula Hart - executive producer of the ABC sitcom - unless Melissa agrees to apologize for the nude pictures and interviews in this month's editions of Maxim and Bikini magazines.

Silberkleit hit the ceiling Monday after reading in The Post about the 23-year-old actress baring nearly all in an attempt to project a sexy, grownup image.

"If Ms. Hart wants to change her image, she must wait until after her contract with Viacom expires and refrain from associating our Sabrina the Teenage Witch character with her personal endorsement of binge drinking, participation in pornography and discussions about sex," Silberkleit wrote in a letter faxed yesterday to Redstone. "I have been personally embarrassed by Melissa's interview and posing practically nude in Maxim."

In the magazine stories, Melissa is shown in swimsuits and in her underwear. And she speaks candidly about sex and about drinking, even describing a "Sabrina" drinking game. "Whenever the cat talks, take a shot," she says in Maxim. "And that's quite often - you can be pretty wasted after half an hour!"

The Archie Comics publisher says such statements violate the contract under which Viacom has licensed the Sabrina character.

On the cover of Maxim, Hart is described as "Sabrina: Your favorite witch without a stitch!" Headlines like that - associating a wholesome comic-book character with a nude magazine picture spread - have the folks at Archie Comics seeing red.

"She can say whatever she wants as Melissa but she can't say it as a representative of my trademarks," Silberkleit told The Post last night.

"It's my livelihood plus it's a 60-year-old image of decency and wholesome family entertainment."

In a separate letter faxed to James Goodman, vice president of business affairs for Los Angeles-based Viacom Productions, an attorney for Archie Comics demanded that "Viacom immediately terminate Melissa Joan Hart's and Paula Hart's involvement with the Sabrina trademark and property" unless Melissa admits publicly that the magazine articles "were a poor exercise of judgment," agrees not to do anything like them again, and "agrees to voluntarily participate in an anti-drinking campaign."

Both letters were sent to Viacom officials late yesterday afternoon so the officials weren't prepared to respond immediately. ABC referred questions on the subject back to Viacom.


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