Alyssa Milano has hit back after a former producer of her hit show Charmed accused the provocative series of being "bad for the world".
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Krista Vernoff opened up about the pressure she felt to write nude scenes in the supernatural drama as male viewership started to increase.
In response to her damning critique, a "heartbroken" Milano, who played Phoebe Halliwell on the show, took to Twitter on Thursday to defend the series.
"Well, this absolutely broke my heart," she wrote. "I hope we didn't make something that was 'bad for the world' for eight years."
Milano, 48, added: "I think we gave permission to a generation of women to be themselves and to be strong and own their sexuality. I'm so proud of what this show meant to so many."
Responding to Milano's tweet, fellow Charmed star Holly Marie Combs, 47, also decided to publically share her support for the show, which ran from 1998 to 2006.
Combs wrote: "I can attest 1000% Charmed was not bad for the world. The reasons and people are too long to list. Maybe it was bad for Krista’s world at the time. End story."
She added: "And the fact that we can still stand up for ourselves and the show and the people who loved it proves this. I never cared what producer or network exec wanted us more naked for their $. And still don't. We knew how to rally against it and found our own power. And still do. #Facts"
Vernoff, who left after season 3, said this to THR about her time as a producer and writer on Charmed:
"I signed on because Charmed was a girl-power show, and about halfway through there was an episode where Alyssa Milano comes out in mermaid pasties and there was a huge spike in male viewership, and then every episode after, the question would come from the network, 'How are we getting the girls naked this week?'"
She continued:
"And they were throwing money at me, and the number keeps going up, and there's all this pressure, and all I can think is, 'I'm creating something that's now bad for the world, and I've had enough bad for the world in my life.' "
Vernoff is yet to respond to Milano and Combs' comments on her interview.
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