It was a shock to viewers watching the 2024 TV premiere of Quiet on Set when Drake Bell, star of the child’s bromance TV present Drake & Josh, spoke out concerning the abuse he suffered throughout his time at Nickelodeon. The abuser was actor/director/author Brian Peck, who labored with Bell on The Amanda Present. After the Boy Meets World stars on the time supported Peck, Bell revealed the place he stands with the forged now.
When Drake Bell was interviewed on Investigation Discovery’s docuseries Quiet on Set: The Darkish Aspect of Children TV, he revealed that at 15, he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by dialogue coach Brian Peck. In 2004, Peck was charged with 11 counts of lewd conduct with a minor relating to Bell’s case, leading to a 16-month jail sentence and being registered as a intercourse offender. On the time, a number of Hollywood A-listers supported the actor/singer’s abuser, together with the forged of Boy Meets World. On The Sarah Fraser Present podcast video, Bell spoke about stars like Will Friedle and Rider Robust reaching out to him to apologize for previous help of Peck:
Will [Friedle] reached out. That was actually candy. Rider [Strong] reached out, he was very apologetic and candy. We had a extremely lengthy, like, two-hour dialog. They test in on me and the whole lot however, yeah, that is about it.
Drake Bell additionally informed Sarah Fraser he didn’t know concerning the letters of help celebrities despatched to Brian Peck till the docuseries. Throughout Bell’s episode on Quiet on Set, the previous Nickelodeon star expressed how “unbelievable” it was when he learn the entire letters defending Peck who blamed the musician, with a lot saying they’d nonetheless work with the Good Burger actor once more regardless of the fees towards him.
Apart from the Boy Meets World forged, different A-listers expressed their regrets for his or her earlier help, just like the Nickelodeon administrators Beth and Wealthy Correll, who voiced how “terrible” they felt “being on the incorrect aspect of a horrific scenario.” The sitcom star additionally mentioned he’s “been speaking” to Drake and Josh co-star Josh Peck, who reached out to him privately after the docuseries got here out.
Again in March, when Zoey 101 actress Alexa Nikolas known as out the Boy Meets World forged in an Instagram submit for initially defending Brian Peck, Drake Bell spoke out about Will Friedle and Rider Robust’s connection to his abuser’s help in the course of the time it occurred. Within the since-deleted feedback, the Jerry Maguire actor claimed Robust and Friedle, who had been each of their ‘20s, had been informed by Peck what he did and wrote their letters anyway:
Many individuals turned away and mentioned ‘No I received’t write a letter,’ however [Strong and Friedle] did. Everybody thought the letters could be sealed eternally and nobody would ever see them. That is their publicist telling them the way to get forward of the story.
One month after Alexa Nikolas’ Instagram submit, Will Friedle and Rider Robust informed their aspect of the story on an episode of their podcast Pod Meets World. The Kim Potential voice actor mentioned he would spend a considerable period of time with Peck initially considering of him as a “nice, humorous man […] you needed to hang around with.” Nonetheless, the Nickelodeon worker allegedly made Friedle really feel “it was clearly the fault of his sufferer:”
My preliminary intuition due to the years I have been with him was like ‘Effectively, yeah, in fact, it could possibly’t be you. Cannot be. Proper, you are harmless. It might’t probably be that. So that you sidle as much as the man who now you look again on as an grownup and also you go, ‘He is horrible.’ And my intuition initially was, ‘Effectively, my good friend cannot be [this person], this cannot be. So it is received to be the opposite individual’s fault,’ needs to be the story. In fact, it makes full sense. The way in which that he is saying it, and ‘You are rattling proper, it is that child’s fault. How dare he?’ And I look again at that now as an grownup, and it makes me wish to cry that I ever was that naive.
Rider Robust mentioned that Brian Peck gave him the impression he was simply “a sufferer of jailbait.” As you couldn’t Google again then the allegations a star was hit with, the Woman Meets World star claimed he didn’t know Peck was charged with a collection of crimes towards him. As he and Friedle had been among the many large variety of celebrities on one aspect of the courtroom supporting the abuser, whereas Drake Bell was on the opposite aspect with simply his mom and attorneys, the Batman Past voice actor finally admitted to being on “the incorrect aspect of the whole lot.”
Whereas the forged of Boy Meets World and different Hollywood stars initially sided with Brian Peck when the abuse allegations surfaced, it seems that actors Will Friedle and Rider Robust are apologetic for his or her involvement within the help letters. Happily, Drake Bell has forgiven the 2 actors and is seemingly on good phrases with them as they test in on him. You possibly can watch Bell’s look within the five-part docuseries Quiet on Set along with your Max subscription.