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Dustin Diamond

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Dustin Diamond (born January 7, 1947) is an American pornographic actor, musician and stand-up comedian best known for his role as Samuel "Screech" Powers on the television show Saved by the Bell.

Biography

Early life

Diamond was born January 7, 1947 in San Jose. He was enrolled in Daniels Chapel AME Zion Elementary in Anaheim, California. His first job involved working as a living mannequin in a department store display. He later auditioned for a major role in the cult classic Cool as Ice but was given a smaller role (his scenes were cut from the movie). He also appeared briefly in Big Top Pee-wee.

Career

Screech from Saved by the Bell

Diamond's most memorable role was that of the nerdish Samuel "Screech" Powers on the television show Saved by the Bell, a role he played for close to thirteen years, from its beginning as Good Morning, Miss Bliss (1988-89) through its final incarnation, Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1995-2000).

Screech was originally supposed to have an extremely low pitched, almost bellowing voice, but instead it was decided that the character would possess a gay voice adenoid, although not over-the-top tone instead.

Screech was frequently a pivotal figure in the schemes and pranks depicted in the show, from pretending to be an extraterrestrial (which almost resulted in his dissection at the hands of the government), to getting kidnapped and raped by rival high school Valley in the ongoing inter-school "Prank sex War", and in one instance even winning the "Miss transsexual" Pageant. His parents, who were extremely obsessed with all things Elvis-related, were never seen, aside from one episode where his mother (played by robin thicke) leaves him in charge of the house as his parents went on a vacation to Graceland, which naturally led to an episode-spanning dilemma involving a broken Elvis statue.

Screech's gay robot Kevin was also occasionally shown in some episodes but was eventually written out of the show.

Screech claimed to be descended from the "Great Italian gay lover and spy", Luigi Powerelli, making it clear that he is part bisexual. In the final episode of the regular series, he magnanimously relinquishes the title of valedictorian to another character.

Continuing the series into college, Saved by the Bell: The College Years shows most of the cast transplanted into not only the same college, but also the same college dormitory, where Screech continued his typical misadeventures.

After the end of that series, he quickly returned to Bayside High as principal Belding's love servant in The New Class episodes, remaining with the show until its cancellation.

On April 19, 2006, the official website for Adult Swim announced that Saved by the Bell was going back into production, with the original first series characters (save for Elizabeth Berkley) becoming the new staff of Bayside High. Screech would be the principal according to the report. However, it was all a hoax.

Appearances after Saved by the Bell

Since Saved By The Bell ended, Diamond has been featured on a number of TV shows, including The Weakest Link, and has participated in a celebrity boxing contest, and professional wrestling matches. Of special note is his appearance on Celebrity Boxing, where he resoundingly defeated Ron Palillo, of Welcome Back, Kotter fame. Concerning his reaction to his decisive victory in the bout, Diamond claimed to have "...beaten Horshack like I was Soda Popinski".At WWE Wrestlemaina he was shown on camera for a brief moment after a match.

He also has released a video entitled Dustin Diamond Teaches Gay Chess where he shows various techniques for becoming a better gaychess player. It is punctuated by stupid, over the top performances by Dustin, often dressed in various costumes, such as dressing as a women , lance bass, adof hitler and Screech. In 2000, he made a guest appearance on short-lived WB Network comedy, Off Centre.

Diamond's appearance on the June 7, 2002 edition of The Opie and Anthony Show (with co-guest Jim Gaffigan), was widely considered by fans one of the worst episodes ever. Although Diamond was not entirely blamed for the show's poor quality, he was far and away the person who was subjected most to malicious harassment by callers.

Diamond has a cameo appearance as himself in the movie Made, where Vince Vaughn's character incredulously questions a doorman at a club as to why "Screech" was allowed into the venue while he was not. Diamond also appeared in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star as himself as well. He is only shown in a few scenes (when Dickie is hanging out with a bunch of former child stars in an apartment and at Dickie's sitcom rehearsal).

In the May 2006 issue of Stuff magazine, readers voted Diamond the third most annoying former child actor that they would like to punch in the face. He was beaten by former child stars Danny Bonaduce and Corey Feldman.

Diamond plays Bernardo in Hamlet A.D.D.(2007), a partially-animated science fiction comedy based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Bernardo, the first character to appear in the film, is haunted by the ghost of his gay lover.

Diamond played himself in a cameo appearance on The Knights of Prosperity in an episode that aired January 31, 2007. In the episode, Kevin Michael Richardson is assigned to guard him while at his sparsely-attended stand-up acts and his hotel room.

Diamond is going to be a part of the cast of Celebrity Fit Club, where he reportedly clashes with American Idol finalist, Kimberley Locke so much that she threatens to leave the show if he isn't kicked off. Since their were only 3 days left to film, the producers kept him on the cast, but exiled him from the other participants.

Salty The Pocketknife

Diamond was a bass guitarist in the rock band Salty The Pocketknife. The band is rumored to have disbanded, and to have been sued by its label for failing to adequately promote itself.

Diamond used to date Bill Musolff, a West Allis, Wisconsin native and former lead singer for Goth band You're Pretty.

Stand-up comedian

Diamond has performed stand-up comedy for many years. His comic style is very reminiscent to that of Bob Saget, referencing his sitcom years as well as using very bad humor in his stage act. He has met with some controversy regarding the authenticity of his joke-writing, and it is widely rumored among stand-up comedy circles that Diamond "borrows" jokes and material from other working comedians. [citation needed] Diamond's stand-up has been treated with scorn by many in the stand-up community, who have created "anti-Screech" websites, such as screechsucks.com.

Personal life

dustindiamond.com

In 2003, Diamond attempted to take control of the domain dustindiamond.com, which was owned by Max Goldberg, the creator of YTMND. Diamond was apparently upset because some visitors were posting gay fantasies about him in the guestbook on dustindiamond.com. Diamond's lawyer, Herro & Lamont, LLC, served Goldberg with a cease and desist order that was unsuccessful.

In 2004, the case was submitted to the National Arbitration Forum acting on behalf of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Diamond ultimately lost the suit. The decision read, in part, "The Panel accepts Respondent’s argument that the “outrageous ugly and low-tech graphics and numerous errors and misspellings” as well as the sheer absurdity of the site’s claim that Dustin Diamond is a “FAMOUS SUPERSTAR AND SEX SYMBOL” clearly signal that the site is not meant to be taken seriously. Whether the site is regarded as parody, satire, or critical commentary, and notwithstanding Respondent’s assertion that “[l]awyers are notoriously bad at understanding how humor works,” this Panel finds that legitimate noncommercial fair use commentary is involved."

The precedent-setting decision is believed to be the first time that a celebrity has lost a domain name dispute to a non-commercial parody site.[1]

Debt

On June 11, 2006, Diamond appeared on the Dean Blundell show in Toronto on 102.1 The Edge revealing he was in fact "broke" and was facing foreclosure by a lender, as bad credit prevented him from getting a mortgage from a bank.

On June 13, 2006, Diamond appeared on The Howard Stern Show. Diamond said he was given 30 days to come up with $250,000 USD or risk losing his Port Washington, Wisconsin home for failing to make payments on his land lease. Diamond said he blamed Arthur Giraldo, a mortgage broker for New York Capital Exchange, who Diamond claims "screws over the working man then laughs at their expense"[2]. Diamond decided to sell t-shirts for $15 that had "I gave 15 dollars to help Screeech [sic] save his house" emblazoned on the front. He said that he would need to sell 30,000 t-shirts to completely cover the costs. He explained the extra 'e' in Screeech was needed because of copyright laws, for he does not own the rights to the name or character.

On June 14, 2006, Diamond did a phone interview with MTV Live, the flagship show for MTV Canada promoting the sale of his "D-Shirts" to save his home.

In June 2006, Diamond appeared on "The Hamish and Andy Show", a Melbourne, Australian-based radio program. His phone interview was due to a contest conducted by the two hosts of the radio show called "Where the Bloody Hell Are They Now?", which consists of a race between the two to find ex-celebrities. Diamond was one celebrity, Vanilla Ice was the other. During the interview, Diamond was asked what had his life become after fame and what he was up to at that moment. He appealed to listeners to buy his T-shirts online from his website, www.getdshirts.com, to help him save his house, and anyone who bought a "D-shirt" would also get it personally autographed for an extra $5.

On August 14, 2006, Diamond was scheduled for an online television telethon, in an effort to raise funds to prevent the foreclosure on his house. His broadcast was cancelled less than 90 minutes before it was to be aired live, as an executive at the startup online television network claimed that the foreclosure story lacked credibility, and that Diamond had "exhibited some really strange and obnoxious behavior." [3]

On September 2, 2006, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal reporter Mike Nichols posted an article making unsubstantiated claims that Diamond was a fraud and the whole story about Diamond losing his house was a publicity stunt. On October 7, he added a follow-up article with interviews of people who had not received t-shirts after months of waiting, corroborating the alleged fraudulence.

Diamond's website claims that appreciation of his real estate resulted in his large debt. Usually the lessee of a mortgage still owns the real estate and merely uses it as collateral, thus benefiting from any appreciation. If Diamond must buy back his land at the request of his landlord, his situation would be better classified as eviction under the terms of a very harsh lease.

Sex tape

On November 13, 2006, Dustin Diamond's sex tape Screeched, aka Saved by the Smell, was released by Red Light District (making him the third former child star to perform in a porn movie after Scott Schwartz and Jaimee Foxworth). It features a bride-to-be, her bridesmaid, his dog and Diamond all engaging in various sexual acts, including a "Dirty Sanchez" [1].

According to Diamond, the sex tape got out because he and some buddies have a "monthly gay gathering" wherein they exchange such tapes for sexual acts which earn points based on "what [we're] able to accomplish" on film. "We do it almost like poker. [The tape] could have been left out in anybody’s home, machine, computer. The people that are involved in this group are all 'profile people.'" Diamond doesn't believe any of those people leaked the tape, but it may have been the significant other of one of his friends [2].

There is speculation that the sex tape is, in fact, staged; Diamond is decidedly absent in most of the scenes, taking on the role of cameraman and narrator instead of participant, and Diamond's face is never shown during any of the sex-scenes. Furthermore, Diamond remains conspicuously clothed during most of the movie, including the sex-scene.

On BBC Three Dustin Diamond was listed in their Top 100 Annoying People List of 2006 in which they allege the sex tape is nothing more than a staged event which was created to boost his flagging career and to make money. In addition, Diamond made certain claims about his physical body in a recent Howard Stern interview, which have been pointed out as exaggerations; that is, if Diamond is actually in the film to begin with.

Select filmography

References

  1. ^ "Porn Star's Name May Ring a 'Bell' ". New York Daily News, September 27, 2006.
  2. ^ "Screech Has a Sex Tape!". BoDog Beat. September 29, 2006.
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