James Marsden Still Hasn't Apologized to Drake Bell for Letter Supporting Child Predator Brian Peck
James Marsden has not privately or publicly apologized for his past support of the man who sexually abused Drake Bell as a child.
James Marsden still has not privately or publicly apologized for his past support of Brian Peck, the man who sexually abused Drake Bell as a child, RadarOnline.com can confirm.
Investigation Discovery aired a fifth bonus episode Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV Sunday focusing on the reaction and fallout since the bombshell series aired, exposing the shocking workplace conditions at Nickelodeon.
While Bell has received an outpouring of support since revealing he was sexually abused by Peck, a former voice coach, he also said in the new episode that there has been radio silence from several stars called out in the docuseries.
Marsden was one of several Hollywood stars to write letters of support for Peck ahead of his sentencing for abusing Bell.
“Nobody’s reached out to me,” Bell said of the Hollywood names who wrote letters to a judge ahead of Peck's 2004 sentencing hearing in Van Nuys, California. The letters aimed to cast Peck in a positive light so he would receive a less harsh punishment for molesting the child star.
In his letter of support, Marsden wrote that he had known Peck for 14 years, since he was a teenager.
The Investigation Discovery docuseries that aired last month exposed child sex abuse and a toxic workplace culture at Nickelodeon.
“I assure you, what Brian has been through in the last year is the suffering of a hundred men,” Marsden wrote in 2004, adding that Peck “has learned his lesson. “
He continued, “The earth would fall from the sky before Brian would even think about doing something like this again.”
“I owe to Brian Peck a lot of who I am and who I am proud to be,” Marsden said.
The 40 others who penned similar letters include stars like Taran Killam, Alan Thicke, Tom DeSanto, Ron Melendez, Rider Strong, Will Friedle, and Joanna Kerns.
When asked if he had heard from any of them during Sunday's episode, Bell said: “Personally? No. Not one person who’s written one of those letters has reached out to me.”
Bell also said last month that he hadn't gotten an apology from any of the letter-writers in an interview on the Sarah Fraser Show podcast.
In 2004, Peck was sentenced to 16 months and ordered to register s a sex offender.
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In the fourth episode of Quiet on Set, Bell recalled being painfully aware that Peck had no shortage of support following the conviction.
“It was the most unbelievable thing I’d ever seen,” Bell said during his interview, describing walking into the courthouse for the sentencing hearing and seeing Peck’s side of the courtroom “full” of supporters.
“There were definitely some recognizable faces on that side of the room,” Bell recounted. “And my side was me, my mom, and my brother.”
“Brian had been convicted, but getting this support from a lot of people in the industry, and, yeah, I was pretty shocked,” he added.
It’s not clear who was in the courtroom for Brian’s sentencing, but Bell was clear that none of the people who wrote letters had reached out to him personally. Since the ID series aired, Friedle and Rider have expressed regret over their support of Peck.
Bell said that while “I really appreciate their perspective now,” it hasn’t changed his view of the day of Peck’s sentencing, which is “so ingrained in my mind.”
Drake Bell publicly revealed for the first time in the docuseries that he was sexually abused by dialogue coach Brian Peck.
He also said Friedle made no mention of the situation during their time working on Spiderman together, despite having “a lot of opportunity” to do so. The Drake & Josh star acknowledged that “it’s a very difficult subject to bring up, especially in a work environment.”
“That’s the thing that’s hard about this,” Bell explained in the new ID episode, adding that “everyone deals with their trauma in different ways, everybody comes to different conclusions at different times in their lives, and realizations.”
Peck pleaded no contest to two charges of child sexual abuse and the judge sentenced him to 16 months and ordered him to register as a sex offender.
He went on to work on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on the Disney Channel.
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