Dustin Diamond passed away from Stage 4 lung cancer on February 1, 2021. It is sad that he died at the young age of 44. His death should serve as a wake-up call for all of us to be vigilant about our health and see a doctor when something just feels wrong about our health. Fans of Saved By The Bell have been posting their condolences in the media and all over the Internet during the past day.
Dustin "Screech" Diamond has reportedly been diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. We are hoping that he is able to make a speedy recovery and can get back to playing Screech in the Saved By The Bell reboot series in the near future! We would love to watch his crazy antics on the International Space Station with Kevin the Robot, Mr. Belding, and Corky from Life Goes On!
"In an explosive interview, Beth told Daily Mail Online how the 38-year-old actor - famed for playing Screech in hit 90s sitcom Saved by the Bell - was an 'abusive' and 'paranoid' boyfriend who always carried a knife and kept guns under the bed.
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'When we were together he always carried a knife on him, saying it was for his own safety. I always worried that he would use it one day when he flipped into a rage.
'Dustin is a very paranoid person, and just thinks the worst of people.
'It made him very angry and aggressive when we were out in public, and I experienced moments where I feared he was going to become violent.
'His behavior stems from a long-term issue that he thinks that everybody is out to get him.
'Being Screech to the public has left him with a lot of resentment and distrust of human beings.'
And Beth, who dated Diamond from 2002 to 2005, says it was only a matter of time before the star spiraled out of control.
'I am surprised that he has not been involved in something like this sooner,' she said.
'I felt my safety in threat with him as he had such violent tendencies.
'He was very verbally aggressive to me during times in our relationship and it was so unpredictable - you never knew what would set him off.
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Beth says that she stuck by Diamond as he tried to rebuild his career after the highs of Saved By The Bell by working as a stand up comic.
The pair moved in together six months after meeting in a bar close to her family home.
However, Beth says his frustrations at failing to relive his glory days and deep-seated emotional insecurities made him prone to violent and abusive outbursts.
On one occasion Beth said she was left fearing for her life after picking him up from the airport after one of his shows to take him home.
'I greeted him when he arrived, but for some reason he perceived that I wasn't welcoming or loving enough when I picked him up.
'He kept repeating this to me, and he became more and more intense. He just nagged at me and become more rude and vicious with verbal bullying.
'No matter how much I tried to assure him I cared for him, it wasn't enough.
'Then he reached for the glove compartment and pulled out a knife.
'I froze, I was in the driver's seat and didn't know what to do.
'Dustin started fiddling with the knife. He didn't say anything, but to me that was a message ... 'don't push me'.
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Another time an unprovoked Diamond threatened to push terrified Beth off a hotel balcony.
'One night I was there to support him after he played a comedy show in Louisville, Kentucky,' she said.
'Things were going well, and we were both in a good mood.
'We walked out onto the balcony of our hotel room and out of the blue, his face turned ashen and he said: 'I will push you off the balcony.'
'I hadn't upset him or had no reason to fear him, but suddenly my world stopped.
'I was totally blindsided by that behavior. I ran back past him into the room, and then he would carry on like nothing happened.
'I daren't challenge him as I feared he he would just snap, and perhaps abuse me again.
'There was no arguing with Dustin; if you questioned him he felt he was being wronged.'
Beth said she was not the only target for Diamond's violent outbursts and told how the immature actor often had road rage arguments with motorists - and even carried a cup of pennies to throw at other drivers who annoyed him on journeys.
Beth sat aghast as menacing Diamond would hurl the coins at other drivers while also letting out a barrage of obscenities.
'He kept a cup of pennies in the cup holder of his car and used them for attacking other motorists.
'If he felt that someone had cut him up or driven badly, it sent him into uncontrollable rages.
'I saw him chase cars down, and then hurl dozens of pennies at other drivers.
'One occasion the other driver became so incensed he actually stopped on the highway, pulling up in front of Dustin.
'And they both wound up centimeters from each other yelling abuse. It was terrifying. I feared for Dustin's disregard for his own safety and for lack of care about others' too. I managed to get him back in the car, but all he consumed himself about was the other driver.'
Beth said Diamond loathed being recognized around the world as TV loser Screech, yet hated not being as famous as he was during his teens.
She believes this made him 'emotionally immature' and prone to violent outbursts.
'Dustin is childish, and will throw tantrums all the time,' she said.
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Diamond's global fame as the 'geeky eccentric Screech' was a double edged sword - and Beth says fans often saw his 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality.
'Dustin could never come to terms with his fame. He couldn't bear that he wasn't a huge star anymore.
'Yet everyday he battled his emotions about being recognized as Screech. 'It gave him a huge ego boost, but also left him feeling vulnerable, down and often insulting towards fans. I saw both ends of the spectrum.
'When I asked him to talk about his emotions, he would just spin the conversation around to how he was going to get his career back.
'But I feel he has no idea how other people see him.
'I have seen him scream at fans when they call out Screech. He told them to f*** off and was rude and aggressive; I worried he would square up to some.
'One time we went out to dinner with my family, and one man screaming out 'Screech' just became too much.
'I was scared a fight was going to break out, my father had to physically intervene between the pair and escort Dustin out of the restaurant.
'He calmed him down and prevented something terrible happening.'
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She added: 'Fame was a love hate issue for him. I honestly think if no-one ever called out his name again he would be broken.'
Beth says that Diamond worried her by keeping guns concealed at his home through fear he'd be attacked.
He kept a pistol under his bed and another one under the stairs, telling Beth they were for self-defense.
She said she eventually called time on their relationship after his violent threats became too overwhelming.
However, after storming out of their home in panic, when she returned to collect her valuables, Diamond locked her out.
'He had the knife and I stormed out of the house, as I was worried about my personal safety,' she said.
'I told him I would be back to collect my stuff. But I went back to the house to get my stuff , and he refused to let me in.
'I stood outside pleading with him, but he just acted in a menacing manner and I left fearing trouble.
'I knew to spite me Dustin would do something to my belongings and I never saw them again."
Parody Site Wins Domain Fight vs. Ex-Child Star Art Triumphs over Celebrity In Precedent-Setting Decision
In what appears to be a first in Internet history, the World Wide Web's legal arm has rebuffed an attempt by ex-child actor Dustin Diamond ("Screech" of TV's "Saved by the Bell") to claim the eponymous Web site, http://www.dustindiamond.com. Instead the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will allow on-line artist Max Goldberg to continue to maintain his parody Web site at the dustindiamond.com address. An arbitrator acting on behalf of ICANN issued the decision on Monday. 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.
NEW YORK (PRWEB) April 14, 2004 -- In what appears to be a first in Internet history, the World Wide Web's legal arm has rebuffed an attempt by ex-child actor Dustin Diamond ("Screech" of TV's "Saved by the Bell") to claim the eponymous Web site, http://www.dustindiamond.com.
Instead the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will allow on-line artist Max Goldberg to continue to maintain his parody Web site at the dustindiamond.com address.
An arbitrator acting on behalf of ICANN issued the decision on Monday (National Arbitration Forum Claim Number: FA0402000237446)
. 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.
Goldberg, 21, is a free-lance programmer whose parody Web sites have been entertaining thousands of fans for several years now. His cyber-installations include www.yourethemannowdog.com, which continues to get tens of thousands of hits every week, and another heavily visited site, www.getyourasstomars.com. Another Goldberg art site, www.ytmnd.com, is set to debut on April 10.
Faced with Diamond's 38-page legal complaint, and unable to afford to hire his own legal firepower, Goldberg wrote a 28-page response himself with the help of his mother and older sister. "I was outraged that Screech would attempt to revive his floundering career by destroying my work of art," Goldberg says. "The ICANN decision shows that an artist's right to fair use still has clout in the legal arena."
Goldberg, a resident of New York City, created the dustindiamond.com site when he was just 18 years old. The site is a low-tech masterpiece making fun of America's worship of celebrity. It includes a public forum "guest book" that has been taken over by pranksters posing as rabid Diamond fans. In a typical post, someone calling himself "Kurt Steinberg" wrote to the child actor, "Your queer fans (who comprise 97% of the people who view this guestbook daily) are simply looking for homo-erotic Saved By The Bell fantasies involving you, Diamond! Such messages allow your gay followers to lose many loads annually!"
Diamond's attorneys had argued that Goldberg's site infringed on the trademark value of the actor's celebrity, calling him "a major pop icon of the 1990s" whose "'squeaky' clean image" was being damaged.
Goldberg's response pointed out that the site's reference to Diamond as a "sex symbol" clearly signaled that it is a parody. "His 'Screech' character is a stereotypically asexual geek," the response says, "and Mr. Diamond's subsequent attempts to revive his show-business career have portrayed him in a similar light, notwithstanding his recent cultivation of facial stubble." Goldberg included a photograph of Diamond as one of the exhibits in his response as proof of the actor's lack of sexual charisma.
Goldberg also pointed out that his site sells no products, carries no advertising, and yields no income. "The site exists solely for the sake of its humorous and artistic value," his response to Diamond's complaint says. "It is truly art for art's sake."
The arbitrator found that Goldberg's site falls within the realm of "fair use." The decision reads: "The Panel accepts [Goldberg's] arguments that the 'outrageously 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."
The decision continues, "Whether the site is regarded as parody, satire, or critical commentary, and not withstanding [Goldberg's] assertion that 'lawyers are notoriously bad at understanding how humor works,' this Panel finds that legitimate non-commercial fair use commentary is involved.'"
The complete text of the decision, together with Diamond's original complaint and Goldberg's response, are available at a site Goldberg's associates registered just in case the ICANN decision went against him: www.dustindiamondsucks.com.
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