See a Resemblance? Danielle Fishel Recalls the Time She Mistook James Van Der Beek for Mark-Paul Gosselaar
“It was the most cringe moment,” the 'Boy Meets World' star said on a recent episode of her podcast 'Pod Meets World'
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Mark-Paul Gosselaar in 'Saved by the Bell' and James Van Der Beek in 'Dawson's Creek'See the two handsome gentlemen in the photos above? Can you tell them apart? Because apparently some people couldn't.
On a recent episode of her podcast, Pod Meets World, Danielle Fishel and co-hosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle recalled the hilarious moment when she mistook James Van Der Beek for Mark-Paul Gosselaar while interviewing the Saved by the Bell star.
The Pod Meets World hosts were chatting with Kelly Packard, who mentioned that she’d briefly dated Gosselaar for two weeks when she was starring in NBC’s California Dreams back in the ’90s.
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Mark-Paul Gosselaar in 'Saved by the Bell'Related: Your Favorite Teen Heartthrobs: See Who They Ended Up Marrying as Adults!
“We love Mark-Paul around here, a.k.a. James Van Der Beek,” Fishel joked.
“Mark-Paul was so good on Dawson's Creek that it's like — We still we still talk about it to this day,” Strong added with a laugh.
Fishel went on to explain the trio’s inside joke, which dates back to last year when Gosselaar was a guest on Pod Meets World.
On the Sept. 4, 2023, podcast, Strong asked whether fans who watched their shows as kids ever mistakenly remember Gosselaar from being on Boy Meets World. “’Cause I get recognized for Saved by the Bell all the time,” he said.
“Even though he was never on it!” Fishel chimed in.
“If I think back, maybe somebody has said to me, ‘Hey, where’s Topanga?’ ” Gosselaar admitted. “If I’m texting with my friends and … we’re just joking around, I’ll basically throw out a meme of James Van Der Beek and basically say it’s me.”
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James Van Der Beek in 'Dawson's Creek'“The three name thing too — Mark-Paul Gosselaar, James Van Der Beek — even though it’s not. And we’re kind of Dutch and the whole thing, and we have big foreheads,” he added.
Hilariously, later in the same episode, Fishel brought up a video she’d seen on social media which she said showed Gosselaar talking about preventing his 4-year-old daughter from throwing a tantrum by giving her an orange to peel, only to have that same daughter run up behind him as he was filming to let him know she’d peed her pants.
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“It was 100 percent you,” Fishel insisted.
“No,” Gosselaar said. “I almost feel like this is Van Der Beek.”
“It may be James Van Der Beek!” Fishel conceded, laughing. “I’m just realizing right now, it was totally James Van Der Beek.”
JSquared Photography/NBCUniversal via Getty, Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Mark-Paul Gosselaar in 2024 and James Van Der Beek in 2020“It couldn’t have been scripted any better than it was,” Strong told Packard on the more recent Pod Meets World episode.
“It was the most cringe moment,” Fishel agreed.
“At least he’s a good sport,” Packard said.
Fishel agreed that Gosselaar was, indeed, a very good sport about the mixup. “He’s been very kind to me about that,” she said.
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