Former Nickelodeon creator Dan Schneider recently revealed that Drake Bell was “devastated” by the amount of support his abuser received from other celebrities during his sentencing.
Schneider recounted Bell’s experience attending Brian Peck’s sentencing at a video interview withicarlystar BooG!E which also showed the Nickelodeon creator addressing some of the claims Silence on set raised against him. Peck’s side of the courtroom was reportedly packed with supporters, many of whom were famous actors or Hollywood insiders.
“A lot of them (were) quite famous. Of course, Drake was devastated by what happened. And even more disappointing, 41 of those people wrote letters to Peck’s character, letters praising him for who he was and asking for leniency,” Schneider said.
Bell was recently featured on Investigation Discovery’s report. Silence on the set: The dark side of children’s television as the unnamed minor who had been abused by Peck, a voice coach and Nickelodeon actor who was arrested in 2003 on 11 counts of child sexual abuse. Peck, who was 43 years old at the time of his arrest, was later sentenced to 16 months in prison and required to register as a sex offender.
Court documents from the case were unsealed for the documentary and revealed that many celebrities wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency in Peck’s sentencing, including James Marsden, Will Friedle, Rider Strong, Taran Killam and more.
Marsden’s letter noted that he had known Peck for 14 years. He wrote: “I assure you that what Brian has been through for the last year is the suffering of a hundred men.”
Killam, who also starred Amanda’s show with Bell, also wrote about the impact the case had on Peck, saying, “I have seen the effects this situation has had on Brian and I know for a fact that he regrets the mistakes made.”
Friedle recently commented on the situation, saying Peck “turned” him and Strong “against the victim.”
“However, to be clear, he did not say that nothing had happened,” Strong said. “So when we heard about this case and learned something about it, it was always in the context of, ‘I did this, I’m guilty.’ I will receive whatever punishment the government determines, but I am a victim of jailbait. There was an attractive boy. I just did this and he is a minor. And we buy that story instead of saying, ‘Wow, grown man who’s over 40, what the hell are you doing?’”
The Hollywood Reporter reported that Bell called the The boy knows the world stars for claiming they were “manipulated” in a since-deleted post. “Will was 27 years old and Brian told him what he did,” Bell wrote, according to THR. “A lot of people turned around and said no, I won’t write a letter but [Friedle and Strong] did.”
He added: “Will was not manipulated. Brian admitted it to him and wrote the letter anyway. He then worked with me on many Spider-Man episodes years later and never said a word to me about it. This is because they were told there [sic] The letters will be made public. Everyone thought that the letters would be sealed forever and that no one would ever see them. This is their publicist telling them how to get ahead of their story.”
Jugo Mobile has reached out to representatives for Rider, Killam and Marsden for comment.
If you or someone you know needs to reach out about sexual abuse or assault, RAINN is available 24/7 at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or online atLLUVIA.org.