[This story contains spoilers from the series premiere of BH90210, “The Reunion.”]
In BH90210, Fox’s meta-revival of Beverly Hills, 90210, the series’ original castmembers play heightened versions of themselves as they try to mount a reboot of their ’90s teen soap. The hourlong dramedy is full of Easter eggs for fans — literally, as Jennie Garth has a nightmare about exchanging an egg — but the series is also full of tongue-in-cheek references to the stars’ real lives.
The premiere centered on Tori Spelling, Jennie Garth, Gabrielle Carteris, Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green reuniting at a fan convention for the 30th anniversary of Beverly Hills, 90210, then deciding, after getting the band back together, that they might want to stage their own reboot of the series.
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Below, The Hollywood Reporter fact-checks several of the claims made by the TV versions of the actors to find out what’s real and what’s part of the series’ fiction.
Claim: Tori Spelling lost her v-card to Brian Austin Green.
It was a major TV event when Spelling’s innocent Donna Martin finally decided to have sex for the first time with her longtime love, Green’s David Silver, but on BH90210, Spelling made several jokes that insinuated he took her v-card in real life too.
The Facts: Maybe. Spelling revealed on Lifetime’s Celebrity Lie Detector that she did sleep with Green while 90210 was still on the air. Whether it was her first time, however, is still up in the air. The faux-reality show in which she and her TV husband star? That’s definitely based on any number of Spelling’s real-life ventures into reality TV.
Claim: Brian Austin Green is married to a pop star.
The TV version of Green is a family man, married to pop star Shay (played by La La Anthony) and stay-at-home dad to their three kids.
The Facts: Green has been married to actress Megan Fox since 2010. The two reconciled after Fox filed for divorce a few years ago, and they share three sons. Green recently told People that his wife still hasn’t seen any episodes of the show that made him famous.
Claim: Ian Ziering is married to a fitness influencer.
Ziering is peddling a fitness book with his wife, Stacey, who’s an author, fitness influencer and potential new Real Housewives of Beverly Hills castmember.
The Facts: Ziering’s real-life wife, Erin, is actually an influencer of sorts. She writes a blog, At Home With the Zierings, that focuses on fashion, travel and mothering.
Claim: Jason Priestly is a hot-headed director who punched an actor on set.
Before TV Priestley heads to Vegas for the 90210 convention, he gets into an on-set altercation with an actor he’s directing (and punches him in the face).
The Facts: While Priestley is a prolific director (and has helmed dozens of episodes of TV series, including Van Helsing, Rookie Blue, The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Beverly Hills, 90210, as well as the Luke Perry TV Western Goodnight for Justice), there is no public record of any violent incident — nor are there even rumors online of Priestley being ill-tempered at all. And while he has no kids on the series, in real life he’s been married since 2005 and has two children.
Claim: Jennie Garth has split from her third husband.
Garth is shown raging against her recently split third husband.
The Facts: While Garth did split from her third husband in 2017 and file for divorce in 2018, the pair seem to have reconciled: The duo filed a petition in 2019 to dismiss the divorce proceedings and a spokesperson told People they are “very happy” together.
