Saved by the Bell has attempted to scrub the dirt from their reboot by removing scenes in which characters make fun of Selena Gomezโs 2017 kidney transplant.
Despite Gomez crediting her friend Francia Raisa as her transplant donor, the sixth episode of the reboot saw new characters speculate about the donor's identity, but have since been removed from the series, per Variety. "I know for a fact that Selena Gomezโs kidney donor was Justin Bieber's mom. God I wish that I had my phone so I could prove it," one character says in a scene, to which another speculates a different theory. โProve what? That youโre an idiot? It was Demi Lovato's kidney. Theyโre best friends, like you and I were."
After the scenes went viral, Respect Selena Gomez started trending on Twitter with over 200,000 tweets about the new Peacockโs addition. Since the backlash, the streaming network has issued an apology. โWe apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selenaโs health,โ the studio and executive producers said in a statement. โWe 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."
Afterward, Raisa addressed the disrespect in her own tweet. "Appreciate the apology but letโs not forget about the donors that potentially felt offended and dismissed from the spray paint written on the wall," she wrote.
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