Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s costar bashes Screech’s ‘Bell’ tell-all

Mark-Paul Gosselaar still can’t get away from Screech after all these years.

The “Saved By the Bell� alum, 40, who’s currently starring in TNT’s “Franklin & Bash,� was questioned about former costar Dustin Diamond’s tell-all memoir that chronicled their time at the fictional Bayside High, where Diamond played geeky sidekick Screech Powers to Gosselaar’s preppy ace Zack Morris.

The popular NBC sitcom ran from 1989 to 1993, launching the careers of several of the actors and sparking teen crushes the world over.

Though Gosselaar didn’t seem perturbed by a HuffPost Live reporter’s questions about Lifetime’s upcoming behind-the-scenes movie, his “Franklin & Bash� costar Breckin Meyer seemed to be “aching� to say something about Diamond.

And it’s wasn’t all right for Meyer.

“This guy’s such a ... , Dustin Diamond,� Meyer interjected (Warning: Link contains profanity). “I need to say it. I don’t know Dustin at all but like everything I read -- like [Mark-Paul] and I have talked endlessly about ‘Saved By the Bell,’ and I grew up at the same time. I was acting, like I used their sets one time when I did a pilot and I met [Mark-Paul] as a kid -- but the Dustin Diamond thing is just so silly. It’s just so negative, it always bums me out because I know everybody from the show.�

That’s when Gosselaar chimed in with his experiences, which he said were vastly different than what Diamond spelled out in his book and alluded to in his infamous sex tape.

“It is negative, that I must say,� Gosselaar added. “It’s like everything that I’ve heard about his book is that it is negative and I don’t remember those things because my experience on the show was very positive.�

“That’s why when people say, ‘Oh, you don’t like talking about,’ it’s like no, I don’t mind talking about it, I just don’t really remember that time. But also, everything I do remember was extremely positive. We still have friendships from it.�

Gosselaar said he’d read only excerpts from Diamond’s “Behind the Bell� and added that he and his costars weren’t involved in the TV movie at all.

Then Meyer came back to lay it on even thicker.

“But like I know [his costars] Elizabeth [Berkley], Tiffani [Thiessen] and Mario [Lopez] and everyone has nothing but awesome times to say about that except for Dustin,� Meyer said. “And I’m like, it might be you, bro! ... I think a bunch of it’s bull ....�

“It’s his perspective,� Gosselaar said of the memoir, diplomatically.

Then his “Franklin & Bash� costar continued to bash Diamond, referring to the sex tape.

“You saw it, it’s not him. Screech is not packing that. You’re full of ..., Dustin,� he said straight to the camera.

Then Meyer breezily provided the headline for the feud: “Mark-Paul’s new Screech angry at the old Screech!�

Diamond has often been accused of looking for his foregone fame, and his manager responded Thursday to Meyer’s remarks.

“How can he make a judgment without even knowing him?� he told The Times. “[Breckin] said so himself that he never met Dustin. Let him meet him first and make the call. Let him meet him himself and let him make the decision then. You can’t judge without meeting.�

Diamond, 37, is currently doing stand-up acts and will appear in “Bayside: The Musical� in New York.

“He’s busy, he works,� his manager said.

He declined to comment on Meyer’s sex-tape allegations: “That’s all in the past and that’s it.�

Meyer seemingly apologized for his remarks on Twitter: “Apologies for my stoopid potty mouth. My swear jar runneth over,� he wrote.

Saved by the bash. Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.