Steven Lawton/FilmMagicSaved by the Bell twist! It seems Dustin Diamond wasn't invited to the big reunion on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon after all.
Diamond, who played Samuel "Screech" Powers for years across Saved by the Bell, Saved by the Bell: The College Years, Saved by the Bell: The New Class and TV movies, was missing from the February reunion of Mario Lopez, Elizabeth Berkley, Tiffani Thiessen and Mark-Paul Gosselaar. At the time, his attorney told E! News he had "prior commitments," but in a new interview, Diamond admits he wasn't invited.
"It would have been fun, but I don't see it as a personal insult," Diamond told a local Fox affiliate in a new interview. The actor recently pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges brought after a bar fight on Christmas evening in Wisconsin.
Lark Voorhies, Lisa Turtle to Bell fans, also didn't attend. "Lark would have loved to be part of the Jimmy Fallon skit (as she is a big fan of the show), however due to an intense work schedule she was not available," her publicist told E! News after the reunion aired.
The reuniting cast assembled on The Tonight Show when the NBC late-night talk show filmed in Los Angeles. They appeared opposite Jimmy Fallon in a sketch set at Bayside High, which was supposedly Fallon's old high school. Dennis Haskins reprised his role of principal Mr. Belding.
Diamond, who also wasn't part of a cast reunion photoshoot for People in 2009, wrote a tell-all about his time on the series as a teen. The book was the basis for the Lifetime movie The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story. But now Diamond is backtracking on the content of the book.
"I wanted to do a book on my life—all the stuff I've gone through, like my brother, a lot of things people didn't know about, and nobody was interested in it. No one wanted to hear it. Everybody just wanted gossip," Diamond said.