Selena Gomez Fans Offended By This Saved By The Bell Scene
Selena Gomez fans are leaping to her defense after the new Saved By The Bell reboot seemed to poke fun at her kidney transplant. One scene contained the graffiti “Does Selena Gomez even have kidneys?” on a wall in the background; another reportedly featured two characters speculating about the identity of her kidney donor.
“I don’t fucking care if it’s a relevant tv show or a flopped one, making fun of someone else’s health and someone’s struggle will NEVER be okay!” one fan tweeted. “What fucked up people would think this is funny in any way? This is absolutely disgusting & horrendous behavior!” RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ is now a trending topic on Twitter.
Selena Gomez received a kidney transplant from her friend Francia Raisa in 2017 due to complications from lupus. During the procedure, Gomez broke an artery and had to have an additional emergency surgery. “We didn’t want to tell anybody because recovery was very hard for us, and we went through a depression at the time,” Raisa said in a 2018 interview. “We kind of just wanted to be normal and not have that attention on us.”
UPDATE: NBC’s Peacock streaming service has apologized for the scenes and donated to Selena Gomez’s lupus charity, per the Hollywood Reporter. “We apologize. It was never our intention to make light of Selena’s health,” Peacock, NBC Universal, and the show’s executive producers said in a statement. “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.”