Still the odd man out! Dustin Diamond wasn’t part of the Saved by the Bell gang’s reunion dinner that star Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack Morris, teased on Instagram April 21.
“This is what 30+ years of friendship looks like…,” he captioned a photo of himself with wife Catriona McGinn, Tiffani Thiessen (Kelly Kapowski) and husband Brady Smith, Mario Lopez (A.C. Slater) with pregnant wife Courtney Laine Mazza, and Elizabeth Berkley (Jessie Spano) with husband Greg Lauren.
“Friends forever…,” Thiessen captioned the same pic on her account.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwgT9ppJ-dc/
Maybe these four are buds to the end of time, but not so much with oddball Screech, apparently.
Diamond, 42, has found himself in plenty of trouble since the teen sitcom ended in 1992. He was arrested in December 2014 for allegedly pulling a knife out during a Wisconsin bar fight, and was convicted on two misdemeanor charges. He served three months of his four-month sentence, and was released on probation. However, his parole office later found that he violated the terms, and the former teen star was arrested again in May 2016. He also starred in a porno.
But even before his headline-making bar-room bust, Diamond found himself on the outs. In 2009, he released a tell-all memoir titled Behind the Bell. In it, he detailed how the sexy young cast members allegedly hooked up with each other, and discussed their alleged use of drugs and alcohol. Gosselaar has slammed the book as “fiction.”
In 2014, Diamond helped executive produce the Lifetime TV movie The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story, which showed the less appealing behind-the-scenes shenanigans, including fights and jealousy. During an interview with The Huffington Post, Gosselaar said that neither he nor the other cast members had anything to do with the TV movie.
Berkley also didn’t have any interest in the project. “I’m not really curious about it. We know the lives we led,” she told reporters at the time.
Diamond even admitted in a 2014 Associated Press interview that he and his former costars were estranged, and that it had been more than 20 years since he was in contact with them. But he did want to fix things in 2016.
During an episode of Dr. Oz, the actor said, “It’s doing interviews like this and getting the word out there. This is my best weapon for repairing the damage that was caused by things that were done by people who took advantage of me and the situation I was in at the time,” alluding to the ghostwriter he admitted to using for his book.
“I will say, ‘Guys, I think you’re fantastic. Working with you has been just one of the icons of my life, and I’m sorry that this has taken advantage of me — the book and other situations. … I’m still loving you guys,’” Diamond said in apology as he looked into the camera.
Also missing from the cast get-together Saturday were Lark Voorhies (Lisa Turtle), who has been battling bipolar disorder, and Dennis Haskins (Mr. Belding).
