Melissa Joan Hart has more to apologize for

Apparently, the New York Post overheard Melissa Joan Hart wishing that Farrah Fawcett would postpone her death until after her People weight loss bikini pic hit the news stand; Hart later apologized via her blog. Hart's alleged comments are pretty callous, to be sure, but she wasn't exploiting Farrah's situation, unlike Ryan and Redmond O'Neal, various former Charlie's Angels' stars and NBC/MSNBC.

My problem with Hart is that she is continuing this trend of has-been actresses who thinks that they can jumpstart their careers by appearing on magazine covers just because 'life happened' to them. What are Hart's claims to fame? Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina, the Teen Witch, and Drive Me Crazy. That's it. And yet, just because some people online insulted her for being fat after baby and she decided to 'show 'em', by dieting and losing weight, she felt compelled, and worse, entitled, when it came to appearing on the cover of People Magazine? She is supposed to be an actress, not some weight loss guru. Show people who you are through your work; elbowing your way onto a celebrity magazine cover when you're barely a celebrity is ridiculous. And lazy.

Hart isn't the first 'actress' to use magazine covers to reignite a career. Tori Spelling, Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli, and yes, even Farrah Fawcett did it too. Actually, Farrah went a step further; not only did she do a Playboy cover and spread, she filmed an accompanying Playboy video, featuring her 'painting' - we've never seen another example of her 'artwork' since.

Actresses doing magazine cover stories are not new. In Hollywood's golden age, it was required. But those actresses never put on a 'poor me' face; if anything, they presented a confident, albeit, contrived front. Was that a good idea? Maybe, because it did produce a multitude of diverse female stars; however, for stars like Joan Crawford, whose ambitions were out of control, this practice created an eventual environment of 'put up or shut up'. We saw that with Jennifer Aniston, who spent years of her marriage saying that a baby was on the way, and yet... no baby. The downside to female stars putting on a confident front was that when they were truly in crisis, they couldn't discuss it, as demonstrated by Judy Holliday. Judy Holliday suffered from and eventually died from breast cancer. She was treated as if she brought the breast cancer on herself and alienated because of it. Would it have been better if Judy talked about it publicly- probably not - but releasing some of her anxieties and not being burdened down with shame could've extended her life. She was only 43 years old.

And on that note, in tribute to 'actresses' who were really actresses, actresses who didn't chase magazine covers, but good movie roles, and actresses, despite having career disappointments, brought it in any role, big or small, here's a clip of the magnificent Judy Holliday in her Oscar turn in 'Born Yesterday'. A dark-horse winner, in the same year that Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson were nominated in All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard, respectively, she was thoroughly deserving nonetheless.