People: Dustin Diamond says stabbing was in defense of fiancee
Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on the 1990s TV show “Saved by the Bell,” was charged Friday with stabbing a man during a bar fight on Christmas.
Diamond, 37, faces charges of felony second-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon.
According to the criminal complaint, Diamond told police that he and his fiancee went out to several bars Thursday night in Port Washington, Wisconsin, about 30 miles north of Milwaukee. The couple, who live in Port Washington, got into a tussle with two men and another woman at the Grand Avenue Saloon, the complaint said.
Port Washington police say they responded at 11:15 p.m. to a report of a stabbing at a bar. When police caught up with their SUV down the road from the bar, Diamond told police he had a “pen” in his hand when he grabbed one of the men, according to the complaint.
Port Washington police found in the car a switchblade, the point of which was covered in what appeared to be blood. Diamond later told police he accidentally stabbed the man while trying to defend his fiancee, according to the complaint.
The man had been stabbed under the armpit and police said he was not seriously injured.
Diamond appeared Friday afternoon in Ozaukee County court, where bail was set at $10,000. His next hearing is scheduled for Monday. His fiancee, 27-year-old Amanda Schutz, also faces a disorderly conduct charge.
His agent declined comment Friday.
Lansbury, 89, on ‘Blithe Spirit’ tour
Angela Lansbury has settled in for a six-week run of Noel Coward’s comedy “Blithe Spirit” at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.
This is the 89-year-old Lansbury’s third time around with Coward’s 1941 farce, which is propelled by a medium who accidentally conjures the ghost of a writer’s precocious wife. Lansbury played the clairvoyant Madame Arcati on Broadway in 2009. She reprised the role last spring on London’s West End.
Now, she’s taking the character on the road for a four-city North American tour that began in Los Angeles on Dec. 9, then heads to San Francisco, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
Lansbury told the Associated Press that playing the character requires much more imagination than the role that earned her TV fame – writer-turned-sleuth Jessica Fletcher in “Murder, She Wrote.”
The birthday bunch
Actor John Amos is 75. ABC News correspondent Cokie Roberts is 71. Rock musician Mick Jones (Foreigner) is 70. Singer Tracy Nelson is 70. Actor Gerard Depardieu is 66. Singer-songwriter Karla Bonoff is 63. Former professional wrestler and actor Bill Goldberg is 48. Actor Wilson Cruz is 41. Actor Aaron Stanford is 38.