Former Saved By The Bell star and current standup comedian Dustin Diamond is having a rough go of it, and not just because Lisa Turtle won’t reciprocate his undying affections.
The 29-year old actor, who will forever be synonymous with his Bell character, Screech Powers, needs to raise $250,000 in the next 30 days to save his house from foreclosure.
Diamond bought a gray, two-story house in Port Washington, Wisconsin, upon the conclusion of Bell and its many spinoffs, in which he also starred. The foreclosure order was filed against him last month, as he has been unable to settle a land contract dispute with his New York-based lender.
To keep his house, Diamond is trying to sell nearly t-shirts at $15-20 a pop to keep the property. The front of the shirts read “Save My House” and “I paid $15 to save Screech’s house” is printed on the back. For an extra $5, you can get an autographed version, in which Diamond will sign his name and tell his lender adversary that he can [expletive] himself.
He recently made an appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show to plead his case.
While it would be fitting for Zack Morris to appear out of nowhere and admit he staged all of this as one of his elaborate practical jokes, Diamond is clearly having his bell rung (pun very much intended) in reality. Poor guy. Hopefully he can sell enough shirts. Failing that, perhaps former co-star and future Dancing With The Stars participant Mario Lopez can bail him out.
Or, in a last-ditch effort, he could always go the Elizabeth Berkeley route, if you know what we’re talking about. We’re talking about appearing in an NC-17 flick about strippers.