Ian Ziering Responds To Jessica Alba’s Claim There Could Be ‘No Eye Contact’ On The Set Of ‘90210’: ‘It Saddens Me’

By Rachel West. Published: 7 Oct 2020 5:00 PM

The incident may have happened more than 22 years ago but Ian Ziering is responding to Jessica Alba’s claim she was instructed not to make eye contact with the stars of “Beverly Hills, 90210”.

Back in 1998, Alba appeared on two episodes of the series. During a recent episode of “Hot Ones”, the actress revealed she was instructed not to look the main cast in the eye. Her comments caused a firestorm that has former cast members, including Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, and Ziering, responding.

Ziering doesn’t deny Alba’s recollection but suggests to ET Canada that the “no eye contact” request could have been made by an overzealous crew member without the cast’s knowledge.

“I’m sure if any of us heard about it on the day we would have fixed that immediately. Nobody stands for that. That’s just horrible, disgusting and wrong,” he tells ET Canada. “It saddens me to hear that her light was dimmed a little bit. I’m sure she was very excited to have that opportunity to be on the show like we all did.

“I don’t doubt her, I’m sure someone said that to her. I don’t think that was motivated by any of our cast though,” he says. “Being that it was told to her, I’m pretty sure that it was some second or third AD who decided to flex a little bit and tell Jessica Alba you know, don’t look anyone in the eye, which is so ridiculous. You know I’ve asked my buddies about this and they’re all like, they don’t get it.”

Ziering’s buddy and former co-star Priestley agrees with him, calling in to Toronto’s KISS 92.5 for a chat with ET Canada’s Roz Weston.

“‘Don’t look at the stars of the show’ was never an edict that came down on our show,” the Canadian actor says. “I don’t know who told Jessica Alba not to look at us. Like, none of us on that show were, we never thought we were MC Hammer!”