Yesterday we talked about how Saved by the Bell‘s Lark Voorhies‘ mom came forward and blamed the “erratic” behavior that her daughter had been exhibiting over the past year on the fact that her daughter has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Which, if you can get past the fact that it was really f-cked up that a grown-ass woman’s mother is talking personal details of said grown-ass woman’s life without permission, I guess it’s what our moms do, sometimes, right? Give things away that we’d all rather not discuss with people who don’t know us, yes? Well, former SBTB co-star Dustin Diamond (otherwise known as ‘Screech’) has also come forward saying that she’s not the same girl he used to know, and he’s kind of worried about her, too.
From People:
In 2003, Lark Voorhies and Dustin Diamond reunited after many years to record commentary for a Saved by the Bell box set. But it wasn’t the Screech-and-Lisa reunion he expected.
“I was always used to playing off of her and looking into her eyes,” Diamond says of his former costar. “When I saw her at the commentary, it wasn’t the Lark I knew.”
Voorhies stared into space, Diamond says, much like she did during a series of interviews with PEOPLE. Voorhies says she is spiritual, but her mother Tricia revealed her daughter was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
She wasn’t always like this. Voorhies, who famously played the bubbly Lisa Turtle on the ’90s Saturday morning sitcom, was just as engaging offscreen, recalls Mario Lopez.
“[She] came from a real nice family – close with her mom. She carried herself like a little lady,” says Lopez, who played jock A.C. Slater on the show. “She was a sweet, pretty, cool teenaged girl. I was a big fan of hers. We got along great.”
She also got along with Diamond, despite her character rejecting his countless advances. Last year, the pair found themselves working side-by-side again, this time on an indie film called Little Creeps.
But the girl Diamond knew from Saved by the Bell looked more like the woman he saw while recording a commentary nearly a decade ago. Diamond recalls her darting off set and creating tension when she was there.
“Part of me is putting it out of my mind and not thinking about it, but the other part is that of concern,” he says. “Man, I hope she’s all right.”
So, OK. I don’t doubt what Dustin Diamond is saying to be true. But guys, it’s Dustin Diamond. He’ll pretty much comment on anything at all if it’ll give him a few seconds of press, right? But still. I find it really, really strange, and almost Britney-like that everyone in this woman’s life is making statements about emotional and mental health aside from the woman herself. And that’s just not cool, guys.
Wow thats really sad, poor girl. I hope she gets the right help. That sucks that her own mother through her under the bus like that, but then again maybe the mom thought it would help somehow by making it public.