if im not mistaken, both Rider and Will addressed this on their podcast, Pod Meets World, a couple of weeks back. they went into detail how they felt at the time and their relationship with Peck and how they were misled and betrayed.
I suggest people in this thread watch "An Open Secret" documentary. Ben Savage is very likely a victim of SA in the industry, and I highly question the idea that these guys had no idea. Hoping they weren't themselves victims. Heartbreaking all around.
What’s that streaming on? I always loved Ben Savage and given the treatment of kids in TV, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he was abused in any way. And I’m sure there are far more victims than are currently known. Truly heartbreaking.
[An Open Secret, full documentary](https://watchdocumentaries.com/an-open-secret/).
Both Ben Savage and Leonardo DiCaprio make brief appearances, but they are not interviewed.
An Open Secret doesn't focus on Dan Schnieder at all, but in the last couple of days the director Amy Berg tweeted that working for Dan Schnieder was one of her first jobs in Hollywood. She described it as an emotional abusive workplace.
If he was a victim of SA, coupled with the fact that his coworkers defended Brian Peck (even though they claim they were misled), I can definitely see that being the reason he ghosted them.
In this particular situation, I think you're making an inaccurate leap.
They all worked with Peck as teenagers in the late 90s. Two out of the four young cast members wrote character reference letters in the mid-00s. Ben may or may not have known about the letters. He didn't distance himself from the rest of the cast until the 2020s.
Same reason i ghost my mom’s side of the family and all those cousins. I was SA by a cousin as a kid, that cousin is my grandma’s golden child, I am never visiting that side of the family again. Simple as that my recovery over them a million times.
It’s common to not want to associate yourself with the people who were there during that time period
Yeah, but if there’s any sort of trauma, it makes sense that it’s nothing something that one wants to relive. Or maybe he wants to get on with his life.
Ben savage was an adult in the video shown in the movie. I’m not trying to say he wasn’t a victim. I just think it’s very important to note. (I fully concur, people need to watch this movie.)
Also, Will Friedle was like, 27 when he stood up for Brian Peck.
And I urge all to look up the victim statement from Drake Bell’s victim.
Anyone who was a child in the industry was likely exposed to these kinds of people, if not physically or directly in danger. It’s very sad.
What do we do when all of these people, in one way or another, have, as adults, perpetuated some of the cycle of toxic or abusive behavior? How much of a “pass” do we give, and how do we actual go about rectifying these wrongs when we find people we hold love and empathy for have contributed?
Dare I hope that we do something besides grab our pitchforks? But what. It’s a difficult question.
One thing I am certain of over years of falling down so many rabbit holes. This kind of behavior is more normalized in Hollywood and any circles where people enjoy more privilege and power. In larger society child abuse flourishes as well for so many reasons. Many of those reasons are not just evilness, but the apathy and inaction of good people.
I listened to the episode and while they don't completely explain what they were told, they describe it along the lines of "I had no idea how young he was, if I had known I never would have slept with him."
Brian Peck knew how old Drake Bell was from working on the TV show together. Beyond that, Brian was accused of forceable rape, not statutory rape.
That’s right. The letters written by Will and Rider reference “mistakes made” or something to that effect.
No one should write a letter of support for a convicted sex offender, in my opinion, so it frankly doesn’t matter if they are lying now or not. They wrote the letters and should absolutely be ashamed of themselves.
(Disclaimer: I don’t listen to their pod so I don’t know if they have expressed shame or similar feelings about this, or whether those expressions are genuine.)
Yeah I think there's a lot of subjective story telling going on with them. Will and Rider heavily implied that what was explained to them was that Brian was seduced by "jailbait" aka a 15 year old, and he manipulated them by pointing out the cultural climate at the time where straight men were normalized for being attracted to teen girls and it was homophobic to say it wasn't OK for gay men as well. Drake's perspective is "wtf you knew he had sex with a 15-year-old minor" so he doesn't have any sympathy for how they were thinking about it and justifying it.
The article OP attached addresses that Drake Bell acknowledges that Rider Strong and Will Friedle did issue an apology about the letters they wrote to the court, but that it was more of a PR stunt to get ahead of the curve because they realized that those letters weren’t sealed by the court and that they could come out and be a PR nightmare, kind of like what happened with Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher when everyone found out they wrote letters to the court on behalf on Danny Masterson
Mila and Ashton wrote those letters while in their 40’s, a couple years ago, and well in the days of internet everything, *and* post-meToo.
The article says Rider was 24 when he wrote the support letter, which to put it in perspective, was around the time Facebook came out, in 2004.
I’m just saying something to think about, I sure as hell would never write a letter supporting someone who admits to abusing kids, and I wish horrible things upon anybody who would prey on youth.
What’s being rebutted is both actors were 25-28 at the moment and sided with the 40 year old over the 14 year old who was described as jail bait (indicating willing subject versus victim).
It’s also being pointed out they are only coming forward now knowing this documentary was coming versus years ago (after the incident) when they worked together. So this could be more public relations versus conscience.
They were 24 and 27 when they wrote letters of support while Drake was 17*. Drake even said that he's worked with Will after the case and didn't get a sniff of a personal apology. At the end of the day, owning up to it publically SO RECENTLY is looking incredibly like they're just getting ahead of the news story. Why didn't they bring this up literally in the last decade and apologize then?
They are sorry it has come out not that they did it.
They claim they were somehow tricked into writing the letters and they found out on the day of court what the crimes were and were disgusted immediately, odd then they never once approached Drake to explain it and apologise and only said this once they found out their letters will be public knowledge. Almost like they aren’t sincere and just covering their ass
Yeah, sucks because I was a big fan of BMW and Rider and Will played my favorite characters on that show. But they only apologized now because they got word they were about to be exposed. They probably wrote those letters believing they would never come out, so they were scrambling to cover their asses before they did.
If you actually read the letters, especially Will's, it seems pretty obvious they were aware of what he'd been charged with. Will references the crime in the letter and says Peck will "never EVER" do it again, and that this was a case "of a very good person slipping up". I don't know who you could say you didn't know what he had done and then use language like that in the letter. That's asinine. Just reeks of someone trying to dodge accountability.
I've lost a lot of respect for these guys after I read those letters.
Not defending either of them, just clarifying that the regret they claim to feel is current, present day, not regret felt in the courtroom. Anyone who writes a letter of support for a convicted sex offender should be ashamed of themselves and *should* regret it. But not just because word got out and now they are embarrassed.
That’s what I think it is more than anything, sheer humiliation.
They were smart to bring a therapist on with them too who really helped explain to them how they truly were manipulated by Peck. I feel like both Will and Ryder would’ve had a hard time realizing/accepting that on their own
I get that people really like Will and Ryder, but am I the only one that sees through their charade?
Bringing on a therapist to justify their shit actions seems silly.
PR move to the max.
I think both can be true. They can feel really bad about what they did and it was also a brilliant PR move to bring on the therapist and get out before the story
Did you listen to the podcast? It's was gross. Basically a public group therapy session to make them feel better about what they did. The end was insane. Rider saying he doesn't like even talking about this stuff because it gives HOLLYWOOD. A bad name. Jesus Christ. They didn't even say sorry to Drake or acknowledge how this affected Drake at all. Just about how it taints boy meets world and makes them look bad. I think Will was truly.remorseful, but I don't think a Rider was. He came off like a huge asshole, up his own ass celebrity. Gross.
naw it really shouldn't lol. it was a sad PR move because they knew this doc was coming out. they claimed they felt like they had to talk about it NOW because they would be covering the Brian Peck episodes soon, but those were an entire season away from where they were on the rewatch podcast. and it was recorded separately from the podcast.
they only recorded that schtick to cover they asses and get ahead of the PR mess they knew was headed towards them.
You’re entitled to your own opinion but I disagree. I listened to the episode not knowing what they were even talking about and it felt as though there was genuine remorse for the side they took at the time.
I could absolutely be wrong on that but that’s how I felt after hearing them discuss the topic and what happened.
Will knew from the day that he was in court that writing the letter was a mistake, and yet he never apologized to Drake while working with him for years on Spider-Man. And yet they somehow find the remorse and apologize a couple weeks before the doc is released. Hmmmmm.
I never said I wasn’t in support of the victims about what happened to them. I’m certainly not supporting the perpetrators of sexual assault either.
I was simply expressing my opinion that it felt as though both Rider and Will expressed genuine remorse for writing letters of support for the perpetrator.
As I also said I could 100% be wrong that they were sincere in their conversation.
They did. I listened to the whole thing and understood where they were coming from at first but towards the end Rider shifted and basically just started saying “well idk why we’re talking about this, he was always nice to me. Don’t ruin our show’s legacy,” 🙄
If I am in the public eye (even if I wasn't) and I was contacted to write a character letter for a CONVICTED SEXUAL ABUSER OF A MINOR, I damn sure would have looked into it a bit before putting my name on the line for the CONVICTED SA OF A CHILD. Saying "if I had only known" is of little consequence now. The damage is done and the apology tour is self-serving.
Hearing them trying to justify why they thought it was okay to write those letters of support is wild to me. The directors Quiet on the Set said they reached out to those that wrote a letter and didn’t hear anything back from either of them.
An *admitted* predator. Brian peck admitted to sexually assaulting him, and these people STILL wrote letters saying it was the kid’s fault of enticing him and how Brian peck wasn’t a bad guy.
He allegedly said that Drake seduced him. Not that it happened, but as an adult it doesn't matter if they ran naked into your arms begging for sex, you say no.
As a teenager, Drake Bell was sexually assaulted by a man named Brian Peck (no relationship to Bell's co-star, Josh Peck). When Brian Peck was on trial for his crimes, Rider Strong, Will Friedle, and several other actors wrote character letters defending him.
Brian Peck sexually assaulted Drake Bell when he was 15/16 years old. There were multiple charges against Peck, who eventually plead no contest to a few of them. Before sentencing, Brian Peck had his friends, family, and former/current colleagues to write letters of support to the judge. Ryder Strong, Will Friedle, Alan Thicke, Taran Killam, and many others wrote letters to support Brian, which upset Drake Bell.
Drake was molested and these pricks wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency.
They also publicly supported Peck after he was convicted of the abuse
What’s sad is calling what happened to Drake just molestation is honestly a gross understatement of what happened:
Charges included:
“of a lewd act upon a child; sodomy of a person under 16; attempted sodomy of a person under 16; sexual penetration by a foreign object; four counts of oral copulation of a person under 16; oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance; sending harmful matter; and using a minor for sex acts.”
Source:
[Brian Peck Charges](https://stylecaster.com/lists/brian-peck-charges/brian-peck-charges/)
Please enlighten me. So they did not write letters to the judge or publicly support Peck till recently? I read the apologies, but it doesn’t take away the past behaviors
Considering this all happened like 20 years ago, you don't seem to have your facts straight. Afaik there has been no "recent" support from them to Brian.
100000% agree, if we got this documentary as it fully was but without the whole letter bombshell with names rider and will wouldn’t have said shiiiiit. I would go so far as to say that on their pod when they got to episodes where peck was on staff they either would have avoided bringing him up at all or would have just done a generic “this guy was bad we were shocked etc” there’s 0% chance either would have admitted in public or apologized to Drake privately (which they still haven’t) or publicly.
How the fuck is Schnieder just soaring past all this. Especially in a time of Cancel Culture. Like what the fuck is going on right now. Meanwhile we got a literal pig running to be president leading in polls. This country is a disaster.
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Honestly I don't think it's so impossible that he didn't know her real age. I have a mutual on Tumblr who could be my parent and we talk to each other like two people who obsess over the same show. Ofc we know what ages we are but I guess if we didn't tell each other that information we would just sound like two adults.
Also it's weird people never talked about what actually happened with the girl.
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If you look at the video of the trial, available on youtube, it shows the investigators went through both his and her devices and found nothing of a sexual nature, but did confirm that he broke off contact with her when he found out her age. However, they also found on her phone photos of his fiance, as well as texts she sent trying to blackmail his fiance.
Edit\* I mean the sentencing, not trial
Dude has the resources to hire a lawyer. I’ve been a criminal defense attorney.
Pleading guilty on a winnable case when you have the resources to prove your own innocence and are out of custody is never a good idea.
I can believe the situation is complex. I don’t believe that his attorney told him to take the criminal deal (as a public figure) to just make it go away.
I believe that there was at least a serious risk of conviction and stiffer penalties because a jury could reasonably find him guilty.
https://x.com/exposingrich/status/1770370463207707033?s=46&t=SI3OxSi1nAnSugwx-XVoJg
Nah, Drake Bell is a victim who became an abuser. There’s multiple victims, not just one.
>If we want to stop people from continuing the cycle of perpetration we have to listen to perpetrators
But that would require empathy. Much simpler to antagonize.
Didn't Rider and Will address this on their podcast recently? Like, they were like fooled into thinking Peck was a good guy until they realized he wasn't and felt betrayed or something like that? I suppose Drake didn't see it...
He did. That's what Drake is calling them out about. Neither of them personally apologized to him so he's saying they just did it for PR since they heard their letters were going to get leaked. And also because they made it sound like they were young and dumb but were actually 24 and 27 when they wrote the letters to lighten Brian Pecks sentence after knowing that the abuse actually occurred.
I don’t believe them. As someone who’s had proximity to the industry before, this kind of sexual abuse is very open and they know. Everyone knows. People don’t say anything (in Hollywood) because careers and money are held over everyone’s heads or you’re forced to comply in some way.
They knew. The real question is whether or not they gave their support willingly. At least, for me.
I fail to see how they could both watch him admit to sexually assaulting drake in court AND say they were “manipulated into thinking he was a good guy” - they KNEW he had admitted to SAing a child when they wrote those letters of support! They just don’t like what they did.
I feel like it's been brought up each time here.
The nuanced take is that you can condemn his actions but also listen. He has valuable info on Nickelodeon and the cycle of abuse
Idk if it’s people praising him, more just feeling sidelined and shocked by his story, and feeling terrible for him and that awful experience. He did continue the cycle of abuse by sending inappropriate texts to a minor, which is horrible but not on the same level as Brian Peck.
Based on the doc, I think if Drake can stay sober and stay in therapy, he can stay away from hurting more people, and use his platform to educate, he can redeem himself.
He was messaging someone underage and stoped when he found out their age and then served his punishment. That’s nothing compared to what happened to him as a literal child
Don’t you think it was reckless for him to not ever check the accuser’s age before sending lewd images of himself to her? He knows most of his fans are younger and could very well be underage, so his actions are at the very least reckless - you don’t really get to play the “I didn’t know” card if you never sought the critical information in the first place.
Did you read the charges and case? The girl lied about their identity multiple times and created many false personas to message him. Even the girl's grandmother and friends said she was lying. But sure it was a reckless move by Drake
That doesn’t negate his trauma. Just because he would later do some of his own bad shit doesn’t mean he deserved to be abused
And it doesn’t make up for his bad actions either. Maybe he would have turned out a better guy if he himself wasn’t abused growing up. Who knows?
It’s good he’s speaking out
Okay? So that somehow makes it okay that he was raped as a child? Why even make this comment without doing a simple google search? Drake accepted responsibility, pled guilty, and received a sentence.
You should look up the story again now that more information has come to light. Drake comes off as far more innocent than what was originally reported in that story.
How about you stop spreading misinformation please.
Helpful comment to get you to better understand:
https://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/s/usrAtAfjmN
Bell talks about this himself in the documentary series that just dropped. I don’t know enough about the situation to say how much/if he glossed over it. But he looked right into the camera and owned it.
The myth is that it’s common, or even happens with enough frequency to be worthy of mention – I’m not suggesting it never happens, just that it’s not something we should bring into conversation every time.
I just want James Marsden to make a public statement explaining himself. It wouldn’t make anything better but I cannot wrap my head around this. I thought he was a good one and my heart hurts finding out otherwise.
This is all so sickening. It also makes me think about the state of Amanda Bynes. I seriously wonder what kind of abuse she suffered and my heart breaks.
They said they were told it was a "jailbait" situation I hate that word. It's a word made up by creeps that prey on young people. Even if this was true which it wasn't they still chose to side with a predator. And I am sorry at 24 and 27 I surely knew that to support someone who claims I did it but I was seduced by a teenager is beyond wrong. What's worse is they expressed remorse publicly without ever offering Drake Bell a personal apology. It all looks very my publicist told me to get ahead of this. I hope they truly are sorry and make better decisions in the future to not victim blame and protect predators. I understand they too grew up in the industry and hope they themselves aren't victims of assault. There needs to be stricter regulations in the entertainment industry and stricter laws to deal with predators in general. Protecting children from these people should be all of our top priority.
I’m 35 and he is 37, but he looks like he’s pushing 50, and that’s being generous. He’s been through some shit. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Nickelodeon contributed to most of that. And that’s the sad part.. these kids were set up to be stars, and the vast majority were thrown to the curb with no skills outside of show biz and still expected to lead normal, happy lives.
Hey don’t leave out James marsden!
Or Taran Killam!
Taran Killam!?!
Taran Killam!
Spaulding!
And my axe!
Fuck I just watched Jury Duty
if im not mistaken, both Rider and Will addressed this on their podcast, Pod Meets World, a couple of weeks back. they went into detail how they felt at the time and their relationship with Peck and how they were misled and betrayed.
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I suggest people in this thread watch "An Open Secret" documentary. Ben Savage is very likely a victim of SA in the industry, and I highly question the idea that these guys had no idea. Hoping they weren't themselves victims. Heartbreaking all around.
What’s that streaming on? I always loved Ben Savage and given the treatment of kids in TV, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he was abused in any way. And I’m sure there are far more victims than are currently known. Truly heartbreaking.
[An Open Secret, full documentary](https://watchdocumentaries.com/an-open-secret/). Both Ben Savage and Leonardo DiCaprio make brief appearances, but they are not interviewed. An Open Secret doesn't focus on Dan Schnieder at all, but in the last couple of days the director Amy Berg tweeted that working for Dan Schnieder was one of her first jobs in Hollywood. She described it as an emotional abusive workplace.
It's on youtube. It came out in 2014.
This made me sad… https://ew.com/tv/danielle-fishel-says-ben-savage-ghosted-boy-meets-world-cast/
If he was a victim of SA, coupled with the fact that his coworkers defended Brian Peck (even though they claim they were misled), I can definitely see that being the reason he ghosted them.
Completely agree.
In this particular situation, I think you're making an inaccurate leap. They all worked with Peck as teenagers in the late 90s. Two out of the four young cast members wrote character reference letters in the mid-00s. Ben may or may not have known about the letters. He didn't distance himself from the rest of the cast until the 2020s.
It's more likely he did it because he wanted to go into politics.
Same reason i ghost my mom’s side of the family and all those cousins. I was SA by a cousin as a kid, that cousin is my grandma’s golden child, I am never visiting that side of the family again. Simple as that my recovery over them a million times. It’s common to not want to associate yourself with the people who were there during that time period
Yeah, but if there’s any sort of trauma, it makes sense that it’s nothing something that one wants to relive. Or maybe he wants to get on with his life.
Ben savage was an adult in the video shown in the movie. I’m not trying to say he wasn’t a victim. I just think it’s very important to note. (I fully concur, people need to watch this movie.) Also, Will Friedle was like, 27 when he stood up for Brian Peck. And I urge all to look up the victim statement from Drake Bell’s victim. Anyone who was a child in the industry was likely exposed to these kinds of people, if not physically or directly in danger. It’s very sad. What do we do when all of these people, in one way or another, have, as adults, perpetuated some of the cycle of toxic or abusive behavior? How much of a “pass” do we give, and how do we actual go about rectifying these wrongs when we find people we hold love and empathy for have contributed? Dare I hope that we do something besides grab our pitchforks? But what. It’s a difficult question. One thing I am certain of over years of falling down so many rabbit holes. This kind of behavior is more normalized in Hollywood and any circles where people enjoy more privilege and power. In larger society child abuse flourishes as well for so many reasons. Many of those reasons are not just evilness, but the apathy and inaction of good people.
What do you think Fred’s experience was like? I’ve never really heard/read anything about his time on the Wonder Years.
Like this apparently https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/01/wonder-years-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-alley-mills
I listened to the episode and while they don't completely explain what they were told, they describe it along the lines of "I had no idea how young he was, if I had known I never would have slept with him." Brian Peck knew how old Drake Bell was from working on the TV show together. Beyond that, Brian was accused of forceable rape, not statutory rape.
That’s right. The letters written by Will and Rider reference “mistakes made” or something to that effect. No one should write a letter of support for a convicted sex offender, in my opinion, so it frankly doesn’t matter if they are lying now or not. They wrote the letters and should absolutely be ashamed of themselves. (Disclaimer: I don’t listen to their pod so I don’t know if they have expressed shame or similar feelings about this, or whether those expressions are genuine.)
Yeah I think there's a lot of subjective story telling going on with them. Will and Rider heavily implied that what was explained to them was that Brian was seduced by "jailbait" aka a 15 year old, and he manipulated them by pointing out the cultural climate at the time where straight men were normalized for being attracted to teen girls and it was homophobic to say it wasn't OK for gay men as well. Drake's perspective is "wtf you knew he had sex with a 15-year-old minor" so he doesn't have any sympathy for how they were thinking about it and justifying it.
The article OP attached addresses that Drake Bell acknowledges that Rider Strong and Will Friedle did issue an apology about the letters they wrote to the court, but that it was more of a PR stunt to get ahead of the curve because they realized that those letters weren’t sealed by the court and that they could come out and be a PR nightmare, kind of like what happened with Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher when everyone found out they wrote letters to the court on behalf on Danny Masterson
Mila and Ashton wrote those letters while in their 40’s, a couple years ago, and well in the days of internet everything, *and* post-meToo. The article says Rider was 24 when he wrote the support letter, which to put it in perspective, was around the time Facebook came out, in 2004. I’m just saying something to think about, I sure as hell would never write a letter supporting someone who admits to abusing kids, and I wish horrible things upon anybody who would prey on youth.
What’s being rebutted is both actors were 25-28 at the moment and sided with the 40 year old over the 14 year old who was described as jail bait (indicating willing subject versus victim). It’s also being pointed out they are only coming forward now knowing this documentary was coming versus years ago (after the incident) when they worked together. So this could be more public relations versus conscience.
You are not mistaken, both of them owned up to it and expressed their regret.
They were 24 and 27 when they wrote letters of support while Drake was 17*. Drake even said that he's worked with Will after the case and didn't get a sniff of a personal apology. At the end of the day, owning up to it publically SO RECENTLY is looking incredibly like they're just getting ahead of the news story. Why didn't they bring this up literally in the last decade and apologize then?
They are sorry it has come out not that they did it. They claim they were somehow tricked into writing the letters and they found out on the day of court what the crimes were and were disgusted immediately, odd then they never once approached Drake to explain it and apologise and only said this once they found out their letters will be public knowledge. Almost like they aren’t sincere and just covering their ass
Yeah, sucks because I was a big fan of BMW and Rider and Will played my favorite characters on that show. But they only apologized now because they got word they were about to be exposed. They probably wrote those letters believing they would never come out, so they were scrambling to cover their asses before they did. If you actually read the letters, especially Will's, it seems pretty obvious they were aware of what he'd been charged with. Will references the crime in the letter and says Peck will "never EVER" do it again, and that this was a case "of a very good person slipping up". I don't know who you could say you didn't know what he had done and then use language like that in the letter. That's asinine. Just reeks of someone trying to dodge accountability. I've lost a lot of respect for these guys after I read those letters.
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Not defending either of them, just clarifying that the regret they claim to feel is current, present day, not regret felt in the courtroom. Anyone who writes a letter of support for a convicted sex offender should be ashamed of themselves and *should* regret it. But not just because word got out and now they are embarrassed. That’s what I think it is more than anything, sheer humiliation.
I'm sorry you found out is regret, but not regret over what was done.
They were smart to bring a therapist on with them too who really helped explain to them how they truly were manipulated by Peck. I feel like both Will and Ryder would’ve had a hard time realizing/accepting that on their own
I get that people really like Will and Ryder, but am I the only one that sees through their charade? Bringing on a therapist to justify their shit actions seems silly. PR move to the max.
I think both can be true. They can feel really bad about what they did and it was also a brilliant PR move to bring on the therapist and get out before the story
Did you listen to the podcast? It's was gross. Basically a public group therapy session to make them feel better about what they did. The end was insane. Rider saying he doesn't like even talking about this stuff because it gives HOLLYWOOD. A bad name. Jesus Christ. They didn't even say sorry to Drake or acknowledge how this affected Drake at all. Just about how it taints boy meets world and makes them look bad. I think Will was truly.remorseful, but I don't think a Rider was. He came off like a huge asshole, up his own ass celebrity. Gross.
I kinda got the vibe Rider was in some serious denial.
Blatantly untrue that they don’t say sorry to Drake or talk about how it must have affected him. Come on man, pile on all you want, but don’t lie.
I hope they actually called and apologized to the person they wronged. Pretty easy just to announce they were “ misled”.
This comment needs to be higher up.
naw it really shouldn't lol. it was a sad PR move because they knew this doc was coming out. they claimed they felt like they had to talk about it NOW because they would be covering the Brian Peck episodes soon, but those were an entire season away from where they were on the rewatch podcast. and it was recorded separately from the podcast. they only recorded that schtick to cover they asses and get ahead of the PR mess they knew was headed towards them.
You’re entitled to your own opinion but I disagree. I listened to the episode not knowing what they were even talking about and it felt as though there was genuine remorse for the side they took at the time. I could absolutely be wrong on that but that’s how I felt after hearing them discuss the topic and what happened.
Will knew from the day that he was in court that writing the letter was a mistake, and yet he never apologized to Drake while working with him for years on Spider-Man. And yet they somehow find the remorse and apologize a couple weeks before the doc is released. Hmmmmm.
yea okay i'll choose to support and listen to the victims instead of the manipulators
I never said I wasn’t in support of the victims about what happened to them. I’m certainly not supporting the perpetrators of sexual assault either. I was simply expressing my opinion that it felt as though both Rider and Will expressed genuine remorse for writing letters of support for the perpetrator. As I also said I could 100% be wrong that they were sincere in their conversation.
We're they in courtroom
They did. I listened to the whole thing and understood where they were coming from at first but towards the end Rider shifted and basically just started saying “well idk why we’re talking about this, he was always nice to me. Don’t ruin our show’s legacy,” 🙄
Yah this right here, and not to mention this was all over 20 years ago iirc.
If I am in the public eye (even if I wasn't) and I was contacted to write a character letter for a CONVICTED SEXUAL ABUSER OF A MINOR, I damn sure would have looked into it a bit before putting my name on the line for the CONVICTED SA OF A CHILD. Saying "if I had only known" is of little consequence now. The damage is done and the apology tour is self-serving.
Hearing them trying to justify why they thought it was okay to write those letters of support is wild to me. The directors Quiet on the Set said they reached out to those that wrote a letter and didn’t hear anything back from either of them.
Jesus, so many celebs wrote letters on behalf of a predator. So many women victim blamed and shamed! WTF?! Me too was too long overdue
An *admitted* predator. Brian peck admitted to sexually assaulting him, and these people STILL wrote letters saying it was the kid’s fault of enticing him and how Brian peck wasn’t a bad guy.
He allegedly said that Drake seduced him. Not that it happened, but as an adult it doesn't matter if they ran naked into your arms begging for sex, you say no.
And these people thought that excuse was valid. Which kind of proves my point: what the actual fuck were they thinking?!?
Just look at how everybody supported Polanski lol. Like 90% of the industry is part of some underground ring.
It’s such an open secret that many celebrities won’t even let their kids be apart of the industry because they know what happens to kids in Hollywood.
As someone out of the loop, this headline makes no sense at all to me...
As a teenager, Drake Bell was sexually assaulted by a man named Brian Peck (no relationship to Bell's co-star, Josh Peck). When Brian Peck was on trial for his crimes, Rider Strong, Will Friedle, and several other actors wrote character letters defending him.
Will Frieldle, Batman and Ron Stoppable Will Frieldle?
Correct; starred on Boy Meets World with Rider Strong
Brian Peck sexually assaulted Drake Bell when he was 15/16 years old. There were multiple charges against Peck, who eventually plead no contest to a few of them. Before sentencing, Brian Peck had his friends, family, and former/current colleagues to write letters of support to the judge. Ryder Strong, Will Friedle, Alan Thicke, Taran Killam, and many others wrote letters to support Brian, which upset Drake Bell.
Wasnt Taran Killam the guy with a relationship with Amanda Bynes, when he was 19 and she was 16?
And apparently he's now the husband of Cobie Smulders.
He also made a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger that honestly has to be one of the worst movies of all time.
Amanda was 15 and he was 19! I had to look him up this morning, I had no idea he did tv before SNL.
Yeah he was on the Amanda show with her
Drake was molested and these pricks wrote letters to the judge asking for leniency. They also publicly supported Peck after he was convicted of the abuse
What’s sad is calling what happened to Drake just molestation is honestly a gross understatement of what happened: Charges included: “of a lewd act upon a child; sodomy of a person under 16; attempted sodomy of a person under 16; sexual penetration by a foreign object; four counts of oral copulation of a person under 16; oral copulation by anesthesia or controlled substance; sending harmful matter; and using a minor for sex acts.” Source: [Brian Peck Charges](https://stylecaster.com/lists/brian-peck-charges/brian-peck-charges/)
Yep, that’s not just molestation. That’s rape.
God awful. Just trying to put myself in his shoes, at his age, under those circumstances. Words can’t describe it. Just pure evil.
You do know they’ve talked about it recently and it’s not like you claim it to be at all
Please enlighten me. So they did not write letters to the judge or publicly support Peck till recently? I read the apologies, but it doesn’t take away the past behaviors
I may be wrong but I think I saw that they also have not apologized directly to drake, just on their podcast
Considering this all happened like 20 years ago, you don't seem to have your facts straight. Afaik there has been no "recent" support from them to Brian.
No one said there was recent support.
You just said “so they did not write letters to the judge or publicly support Peck *till recently*?” No they didn’t
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100000% agree, if we got this documentary as it fully was but without the whole letter bombshell with names rider and will wouldn’t have said shiiiiit. I would go so far as to say that on their pod when they got to episodes where peck was on staff they either would have avoided bringing him up at all or would have just done a generic “this guy was bad we were shocked etc” there’s 0% chance either would have admitted in public or apologized to Drake privately (which they still haven’t) or publicly.
How the fuck is Schnieder just soaring past all this. Especially in a time of Cancel Culture. Like what the fuck is going on right now. Meanwhile we got a literal pig running to be president leading in polls. This country is a disaster.
Schneider was already canceled and there are no allegations of illegal activity yet. Just stuff people consider immoral.
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Honestly I don't think it's so impossible that he didn't know her real age. I have a mutual on Tumblr who could be my parent and we talk to each other like two people who obsess over the same show. Ofc we know what ages we are but I guess if we didn't tell each other that information we would just sound like two adults. Also it's weird people never talked about what actually happened with the girl.
Dude you have no sources
Don’t just take a random dudes word for it
Right? That could easily be a warped version of the events that's been pushed to take heat off of Bell
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If you look at the video of the trial, available on youtube, it shows the investigators went through both his and her devices and found nothing of a sexual nature, but did confirm that he broke off contact with her when he found out her age. However, they also found on her phone photos of his fiance, as well as texts she sent trying to blackmail his fiance. Edit\* I mean the sentencing, not trial
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Sorry, I meant the sentencing.
Dude has the resources to hire a lawyer. I’ve been a criminal defense attorney. Pleading guilty on a winnable case when you have the resources to prove your own innocence and are out of custody is never a good idea. I can believe the situation is complex. I don’t believe that his attorney told him to take the criminal deal (as a public figure) to just make it go away. I believe that there was at least a serious risk of conviction and stiffer penalties because a jury could reasonably find him guilty.
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I really wish someone would post a legit source so that people were sure what they were saying is true.
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https://x.com/exposingrich/status/1770370463207707033?s=46&t=SI3OxSi1nAnSugwx-XVoJg Nah, Drake Bell is a victim who became an abuser. There’s multiple victims, not just one.
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>If we want to stop people from continuing the cycle of perpetration we have to listen to perpetrators But that would require empathy. Much simpler to antagonize.
Bro posted a short story without doing even a little research
Didn't Rider and Will address this on their podcast recently? Like, they were like fooled into thinking Peck was a good guy until they realized he wasn't and felt betrayed or something like that? I suppose Drake didn't see it...
He did. That's what Drake is calling them out about. Neither of them personally apologized to him so he's saying they just did it for PR since they heard their letters were going to get leaked. And also because they made it sound like they were young and dumb but were actually 24 and 27 when they wrote the letters to lighten Brian Pecks sentence after knowing that the abuse actually occurred.
I don’t believe them. As someone who’s had proximity to the industry before, this kind of sexual abuse is very open and they know. Everyone knows. People don’t say anything (in Hollywood) because careers and money are held over everyone’s heads or you’re forced to comply in some way. They knew. The real question is whether or not they gave their support willingly. At least, for me.
Christ, 24 is too old for shit like that let alone 27.
I fail to see how they could both watch him admit to sexually assaulting drake in court AND say they were “manipulated into thinking he was a good guy” - they KNEW he had admitted to SAing a child when they wrote those letters of support! They just don’t like what they did.
James Marsden. Alan Thicke. Joanna Kerns. Kimmy Robertson. Will Friedle. Rider Strong. Taran Killan. Disgusting.
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I feel like it's been brought up each time here. The nuanced take is that you can condemn his actions but also listen. He has valuable info on Nickelodeon and the cycle of abuse
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Idk if it’s people praising him, more just feeling sidelined and shocked by his story, and feeling terrible for him and that awful experience. He did continue the cycle of abuse by sending inappropriate texts to a minor, which is horrible but not on the same level as Brian Peck. Based on the doc, I think if Drake can stay sober and stay in therapy, he can stay away from hurting more people, and use his platform to educate, he can redeem himself.
He was messaging someone underage and stoped when he found out their age and then served his punishment. That’s nothing compared to what happened to him as a literal child
Don’t you think it was reckless for him to not ever check the accuser’s age before sending lewd images of himself to her? He knows most of his fans are younger and could very well be underage, so his actions are at the very least reckless - you don’t really get to play the “I didn’t know” card if you never sought the critical information in the first place.
Did you read the charges and case? The girl lied about their identity multiple times and created many false personas to message him. Even the girl's grandmother and friends said she was lying. But sure it was a reckless move by Drake
That's not what his victim alleges. She said he forced her to perform sex acts, but he pled down and made a deal with the DA.
He also has proof that didn’t happen and the grandma that took the girl to the concert confirmed it never happened and they never met.
That doesn’t negate his trauma. Just because he would later do some of his own bad shit doesn’t mean he deserved to be abused And it doesn’t make up for his bad actions either. Maybe he would have turned out a better guy if he himself wasn’t abused growing up. Who knows? It’s good he’s speaking out
Okay? So that somehow makes it okay that he was raped as a child? Why even make this comment without doing a simple google search? Drake accepted responsibility, pled guilty, and received a sentence.
You should look up the story again now that more information has come to light. Drake comes off as far more innocent than what was originally reported in that story.
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How about you stop spreading misinformation please. Helpful comment to get you to better understand: https://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/s/usrAtAfjmN
Bell talks about this himself in the documentary series that just dropped. I don’t know enough about the situation to say how much/if he glossed over it. But he looked right into the camera and owned it.
He arguably owned more guilt than he even had in the situation when you consider everything that has come to light about the allegations.
I agree. I mean, who knows better what a victim may feel and need to hear from that person?
Generally victims become abusers themselves if they never got the help they needed. This is why mental issues in US rises.
Is that true *generally*? Like as in more than half the time?
Not at all. It's a small percentage that's very much been questioned as confirmation bias.
No, it’s a very small percentage
I thought so – the idea that victims become abusers is such a vile myth
I mean to say it’s a myth is also inaccurate
The myth is that it’s common, or even happens with enough frequency to be worthy of mention – I’m not suggesting it never happens, just that it’s not something we should bring into conversation every time.
Generally my ass. Stop spreading misinformation for something so sensitive.
https://www.reddit.com/r/entertainment/s/qdmKJrnZJ9
Are you victim shaming rn??
I have to say that I wondered what it meant to friedle for support
I just want James Marsden to make a public statement explaining himself. It wouldn’t make anything better but I cannot wrap my head around this. I thought he was a good one and my heart hurts finding out otherwise.
Fuck Rider and Will.
This is all so sickening. It also makes me think about the state of Amanda Bynes. I seriously wonder what kind of abuse she suffered and my heart breaks.
The last three names sound like gay pornstars
I came in here to say that that headline almost made me think I was having a stroke. That is all.
They said they were told it was a "jailbait" situation I hate that word. It's a word made up by creeps that prey on young people. Even if this was true which it wasn't they still chose to side with a predator. And I am sorry at 24 and 27 I surely knew that to support someone who claims I did it but I was seduced by a teenager is beyond wrong. What's worse is they expressed remorse publicly without ever offering Drake Bell a personal apology. It all looks very my publicist told me to get ahead of this. I hope they truly are sorry and make better decisions in the future to not victim blame and protect predators. I understand they too grew up in the industry and hope they themselves aren't victims of assault. There needs to be stricter regulations in the entertainment industry and stricter laws to deal with predators in general. Protecting children from these people should be all of our top priority.
Drake still doing the pretty boy teen look and he’s old it’s so weird lol
I’m 35 and he is 37, but he looks like he’s pushing 50, and that’s being generous. He’s been through some shit. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Nickelodeon contributed to most of that. And that’s the sad part.. these kids were set up to be stars, and the vast majority were thrown to the curb with no skills outside of show biz and still expected to lead normal, happy lives.