Former Saved by the Bell cast member Dustin Diamond has not had the easiest road transitioning from child star to adulthood. After playing the character of Screech for over a decade and after all spinoffs of the popular teen series had been exhausted, Diamond mostly relied on his Saved by the Bell notoriety to stay employed. This led to a string of disastrously bad decisions over the course of the aughts, from his infamous sex tape, to his stint on Celebrity Fit Club, to his scathing “tell all,” which was later adapted into a Lifetime movie. All of this has not exactly put him in good favor with his former cast mates, who neglected to include him in a reunion staged by Jimmy Fallon last year.
But now Diamond wants to make things right with the gang, which he’s hoping to accomplish by personally sending them all handwritten notes to apologize. Ha ha ha, just kidding, I mean by going on the Dr. Oz show and making more excuses while delivering a generic apology into the camera.
When asked what an apology to his former costars would sound like, Diamond responded:
“Oddly enough, 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,” he told host Dr. Mehmet Oz, before turning to the camera to apologize to his former co-stars.
“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 sure we’ll talk about here,” he said. “But I’m sure that you’ve experienced downfalls, as well, in your time and I’m still loving you guys.”
Diamond also admitted that he hasn’t seen Mark Paul Gosselaar since he was 16, and once again maintained that his book had been written by a ghostwriter, and excuse we’ve heard all too many times. It seems as though this is all part of a campaign to repair the actor’s public image, after his recent stint in jail for his stabbing a guy on Christmas in 2014.
(Via ABC News)