On the extremely off-chance you've been dreaming of a Saved by the Bell tell-all, Dustin Diamond has just the book for you. The former Screech's Behind the Bell includes lots of entertaining anecdotes — like the time he says he showed Elizabeth Berkley his junk, years before his homemade sex tape — as well as claims about drugs and hook-ups that his cast mates are already dismissing. "We weren't in rehab and Mr. Belding wasn't my crack dealer," Mark-Paul Gosselaar told Us.
Watch Dustin Diamond at our Online Video Guide
In the video below, Diamond told us what steps his publisher took to avoid lawsuits, and about his new life as a stand-up comedian.
Full disclosure: We took a quick flip through the book and chuckled more than we expected to. Will you read it?
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Dustin Diamond
First a sex tape, now a shocking tell-all? What has become of Screech?
Dustin Diamond, 32, who played Saved By the Bell's adorable dork Screech Powers for much of the 1990s, has released a preview of his new book, Behind the Bell, in which the former child star claims that sex and drugs were prevalent on the set of the teen sitcom, according to Us.
Screech tattles on fellow Saved by the Bell stars
"I could smell a certain 'smoke,' wafting from ...
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Super Mario, Sarah Palin, Mark-Paul Gosselaar
With summer a week away, it's time for play. This week some Top Chefs had a collegial competition, Roger Federer hit a career milestone and a super plumber showed how deep he's plunged into our psyches. The week's biggest milestone was the playful return of one of our best Friends Forever.
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"Zack Morris" befuddles Jimmy Fallon.
Jimmy Fallon has yet to pull off his full reunion of the Saved By the Bell cast, but on Monday night's show he offered a treat to the show's fans.
That is, Zack Morris offered the treat, dropping by the late-night talker to claim that he is in fact a real dude, and that "Mark-Paul Gosselaar" is simply the stage name he adopted upon graduating from Bayside High and eventually becoming an actor.
Gosselaar shares with TVGuide.com the full story on how the spoof came to be, after the jump.
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Can Steven Bochco deliver a new spin on the legal drama? In this video Q&A, Mark-Paul Gosselaar previews his role in Raising the Bar, premiering tonight at 10 pm/ET, on TNT, and reveals what it's like to butt heads with Malcolm in the Middle's Jane Kaczmarek.Speaking of butts... Mark-Paul also shares his take on the "ridiculous" uproar caused by a nude scene from his NYPD Blue days (at the 2:00 mark). The talk then turns to Saved By the Bell, and how that cast of child stars (for the most part) turned out OK. "We didn't have the pressure [that young stars today face]," he notes. "We were allowed to be kids." That said, there may be some "wild" tales to tell. Or at least Dustin Diamond thinks so. Gosselaar, being facetious about Screech's plan for a "tell-all," says, "I'm happy to have someone finally write a book to piece together those years I've been [blanking out on]." Listen to a lot more on that at the 3:50 mark. The chat wraps with Gosselaar copping to dating several Bell ...
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Dustin Diamond by Barry Brecheisen/ WireImage.com
Dustin Diamond, who played perma-teen Screech on Saved by the Bell and its spin-offs until he was in his mid-twenties, is writing a tell-all tattler about the show.Called Behind the Bell, Diamond's ghost-written tome will reveal behind-the-scenes tidbits about his fellow Bellers, including "sexual escapades among cast members, drug use and hardcore partying," according to an article in New York magazine.What say you — are you psyched to read about Bell stars Elizabeth Berkley and Mario Lopez back in their formative years? Do you not care? Or are you just plain over Dustin Diamond? — Nina Hämmerling Smith
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Mario Lopez by Jordan Strauss/ WireImage.com
Saved by the Bell's Slater is now Zach. Mario Lopez, who a short while back learned a thing or two on Dancing with the Stars, will be calling the shots as choreographer Zach when he joins A Chorus Line on April 15. "Every actor dreams about appearing on a Broadway stage," the New York Daily News quotes Lopez as saying. "I have as well, and have been searching for the right time and opportunity." Lopez is booked for a five-month run. — Matt Mitovich
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Elizabeth Berkley and David Caruso by Ron P. Jaffe/CBS
Jeers to CSI: Miami for ludicrously miscasting Elizabeth Berkley as the mother of Horatio Caine's creepy teenage doppelgänger. Just when she'd finally put the twin ignominies of Saved by the Bell and Showgirls behind her, the glassy-eyed actress delivered a performance so stiff and artificial, she made David Caruso (who's rapidly turning into the new Hasselhoff) seem like Daniel Day-Lewis. Speaking of surrealism, what was with the visual gimmick that made the entire episode look like it was shot inside a beehive? This show gets weirder every week. It used to be watchable; now it's the TV equivalent of the Miami Dolphins.• Read and react to Bruce's opinions on The Wire, CSI and more!• Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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Tiffani Thiessen, What About Brian
Zack Morris, eat your heart out. Kelly Kapowski's lengthy tresses and spandex minis have nothing on the sexy, manipulative roles Tiffani Thiessen has filled since leaving Saved by the Bell's Bayside High. Having actually shed her on-screen sweetheart persona long ago — her most memorable post-Bell gig was as Beverly Hills, 90210 troublemaker Valerie Malone — Thiessen continues to shake things up, this time with a saucy turn on ABC's What About Brian (starting tonight at 10 pm/ET). Via e-mail, Thiessen shared with TVGuide.com her thoughts on "appealing" to her audience, vying for an Ugly role and supporting her former costars.
TVGui
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After the season’s best episode so far, last week’s subtly moving “The War at Home,” this one about fallen child TV stars and the Albanian mafia was bound to be a bit of a letdown and — big surprise — it was.I know I’m not the only one who’s becoming uncomfortable with the Law & Order franchise’s growing dependence on “current events” (read: E!News fodder) for plotlines. This episode’s basis in the lives of ex-Saved by the Bell cast members was so thinly veiled, if Dustin Diamond weren’t so desperate for publicity that he’d peddle his own sex tape, I’m sure Screech would be making a slander case.Instead, it might be Dancing with the Stars loser Mario Lopez (aka A.C. Slater) calling up his lawyer — and maybe even winning the suit. Can’t you just hear the Criminal Intent writers’ defense: “You see, their character was named Slater, but our character was named Skater.” Come on, Skat...
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