‘Saved by the Bell’ creators apologise for jokes about Selena Gomez’s kidney transplant

Fans of Selena Gomez have expressed their outrage this weekend, after NBC’s Saved By The Bell reboot joked about the singer’s 2017 kidney transplant.

Despite Gomez’s public statement that she had received a transplant from her close friend, actor Francia Raísa – who later suggested that the singer “could have died” from complications surrounding the surgery – one of the new episodes features two Bayside High students speculating about the identity of the donor.

“I know for a fact that Selena Gomez’s kidney donor was Justin Bieber’s mom. God, I wish that I had my phone so that I could prove it,” one student says in the scene. “Prove what?” the other replies. “That you’re an idiot? It was Demi Lovato’s kidney. They’re best friends, like you and I were.”

Advertisement

In a separate scene, there appears to be graffiti on a wall that reads, “Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?”

As a result, “Respect Selena Gomez” began trending on Twitter on Saturday (November 28), with fans calling the scene “disgusting,” “unnecessary,” and “cruel and unjust”.

Peacock, NBCUniversal and the show’s executive producers, apologised for the references in a statement to Variety.

Advertisement

“We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health. We have been in touch with her team and will be making a donation to her charity, The Selena Gomez Fund for Lupus Research at USC,” the statement reads.







The stars of ’13 Reasons Why’ talk working with Selena Gomez and filming difficult scenes
Dylan Minnette and Katherine Langford are the stars of Netflix’s new young-adult drama series 13 Reasons Why, based on the best-selling book by Jay Asher. We caught up with them to talk about the show’s dark subject matter, how executive producer Selena Gomez got involved, and what it was like to shoot.
0 seconds of 4 minutes, 53 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
04:53
04:53
 

Meanwhile, Gomez has signed up to star as mountaineer Silvia Vásquez-Lavado in a new biopic.

The singer will play the Peruvian in In the Shadow of the Mountain, which is based off an upcoming memoir by the mountaineer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Recent Posts

Bob Vylan no longer supporting Gogol Bordello on European tour following Glastonbury controversy