Diamond Dishes Dirt in 'Bell' Tell-All

Was there any hesitancy on your part to air everything out with the tell-all book?

Nah, that's the way books work. You write whatever you want and then there's libel lawyers that read over it and say 'Nope! Can't say that. Can't say that' And then eventually it gets edited and chopped down, and in that way, I guess it's more of a tell-some instead of a tell-all.

So there were things that didn't make the cut because of concerns?

Oh, definitely. There was lots that didn't make it. [Laughing]

Any worries about burning bridges or consequences from this?

Who am I going to burn bridges with, Mario Lopez? He's not even acting anymore. He's a host. People get on a show and that's good, and it's good for him. I made the mistake of doing that video that got out and come on, I'm a guy that's on the road having fun. Then that video got out and people are like 'You should be ashamed' and 'You should feel so bad.' And I'm like 'Yeah, but I wasn't accused of rape.' Shouldn't Mario feel bad? No one ever mentioned that.

You mention the rape accusation in your book. How much of it was known before this?

It's public record. It's in the L.A. County court systems. I think E! covered it when it first came out, and then NBC payed the girl off and it was hush hush, bye bye. There it went. (Initial report here)

So back to the sex tape, many people think you were the one behind its release. Any truth to that?

No. Who wants to watch me? The problem is with guys that do videos is no regular guy can be an adult film star because we'd all be looking at the camera. No one wants to see me reaching over to the nightstand eating peanuts and M&Ms halfway through. No one wants to see that. I'm not Angelina Jolie.

In the book, you talk about sexual escapades, both yours and others. Did the tape's release make it easier to divulge all of the information about that?

Nah, I'm pretty honest anyway. Everyone makes mistakes. Life is an extension of high school. You make mistakes and you own up to them. If my cast members are that upset about what's in the book, well, read the book first and then make your decisions. If they're nervous or ashamed of it now, they probably shouldn't have done it back then. Do what I did. Eh, a tape came out, it was embarrassing ... it was a horrific experience, and then ... you get over it. It's like that day you tried to squeeze one out in class and it gets messy, and you had to go to the bathroom and change your pants because you crapped your pants. You get over it.

Also in the book, you write a letter at the end to all of the girls you've had sex with (2,000+, he claims). Did you do that to make a statement about yourself?

When you're young and you've got money and your hormones are raging -- you're 12 years old being invited to the Playboy Mansion and you're on the #1 rated show, and anywhere you go, here's a free bottle of Cristal and you can get into the hottest clubs in town. Girls are throwing themselves at you, and you know what gold diggers are and you don't care. The difference is is that now I'm 32 and I had my fun early. I'm the old man now, and I'm well into looking for "the one." I had my fun and got all of my party days out early. Everyone in Hollywood does, but a lot of them don't grow past it. I feel fortunate.

Could you imagine being a child star today, with all of the tabloid attention and everyone being a paparazzo with video phones?

Growing up now would suck. You can't get away with anything anymore. You go out and come out of a bar just a little buzzed and you stumble over something you'd normally stumble on -- like a rock in the street -- someone snaps a picture and it's 'Oh, drunken days!' You stumble past and someone saw you had a beer, and it's 'He's drunk driving!' I mean, Britney flashing her cooch to everyone ... you've got people just waiting on that. I probably would have worn underwear, but it's one of those things where after a while you get used to it, but it definitely wasn't as hard and prominent then as it is now. Nowadays you've got eyes watching you on every corner.

So are you concerned at all you might bump into Mario or Mark-Paul Gosselar at some point?

Bump into them and they have my book? That's a great thing. I hope I bump into them. If you're asking me if I'm afraid, I'm more dangerous with martial arts than Mark-Paul or Mario ever was. I'm not the character Screech. The last thing they'd want to do is harm me in any way, because then that's a whole new legal battle and paparazzi thing. I can own all of Mario's, um, hosting shoes. What does he have?

I didn't write this book as a stab at everyone or anything negative. We were packaged and produced as a Saturday morning family friendly show that was squeaky clean. E! 'True Hollywood Story' came out and I was like, 'This is going to be great' and I was waiting for the Mario thing, and they didn't show anything! I was there! I know all of this stuff went down, and nothing was aired. So I was like, enough of this. It's the 20th anniversary, we aired in 1989, it's 2009, I'm going to write this and put it out there. I don't throw anyone under the bus more than myself and it's an honest account at what we went through. The more upset people get, the more truthful you know it is. It's like you start that rumor in school and if it's not true, you're like "yeah, whatever." But the more people get riled up and scream "THAT'S NOT TRUE!," there's truth to it.

Your character Screech was the dorky kid. Did not being like that in real life help you with the ladies, as they weren't expecting someone outgoing and funny?

Nooooo. That didn't help me at all. I had to work against that every time, man. In real life, I can't change my bone structure. I was still the gangly kid who was 11. Going up against Mark-Paul and Mario who were five years older than me and already weightlifting and stuff and I got to play the goofy, skinny, nerdy guy... my rap had to be strong, my friend. I was a silver-tongued devil. Personality goes a long way and I made a lot of ground because girls like to laugh and they like the funny guy. Mark-Paul was very shy, but Mario had hunting sights on. Any girl that goes to a bar can tell ... girls are smarter than guys. They're not dumb. That's what was so disappointing, you get girls you try to warn and give a heads-up, that guy is going to try to bag you and tag you, and it's like they didn't care. You could tell, the next day they're trying to talk to him and he's ignoring them.

In the book, you allude to Mark-Paul doing steroids possibly ...

Oh no, not possibly. He told me straight out. Get the DVDs. We did one season of 'The College Years.' Watch episode 1 and then watch episode 19, and watch 50 pounds of muscle suddenly appear in four months. That doesn't happen, ask Carrot Top. That's not even remotely imaginable.

"People are like 'Why are you writing about sex and drugs and hookups?' Because that's what 99 percent to the questions people ask me about the show are. Who was banging who. Who was doing drugs. Clearly, people want to know. The book isn't a bash-a-thon on everyone. It's an account of what happened. We were the first live-action sitcom ever. We Ruined Saturday morning cartoons.

So where do you go from here career-wise? Are you focusing on stand-up?

I'm out 47 weeks a year. It's great. A lot of people think, 'Oh, you're not doing anything if you're not on TV.' All of those Internet rumors -- 'He lost his house,' 'He's dead,' 'He died in New Zealand!' I've never been to New Zealand! 'He's Mike D from the Beastie Boys' brother, he's Neil Diamond's son.' The Internet is just what it is. I've seen excerpts from the book on there that aren't in the book. People want to think it's a big dirty tell-all, and that's what half of the industry is into.

The people that get upset at this kind of thing are the people who have something to hide. In this industry, you've got to pull the curtain back and meet the wizard, and sometimes it ain't pretty.

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