James Marsden, Alan Thicke, more wrote letters of support for convicted child abuser Brian Peck during Drake Bell trial

James Marsden, Alan Thicke, Boy Meets World stars, and several other 
prominent entertainers wrote letters of support for convicted child 
molester Brian Peck when the former Nickelodeon dialogue coach was set to 
be sentenced for sexually abusing 15-year-old Drake Bell.

In the forthcoming docuseries, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, 
Bell reveals that he was the anonymous teenage victim whose testimony led 
to the 2003 arrest of Peck, whom the actor met while working on The Amanda 
Show. 

The Investigation Discovery series (premiering Sunday) petitioned for 
court documents from the case to be released, and found several letters of 
support by now-prominent entertainers who vouched for Peck’s character at 
the time. Peck — no relation to Bell's Drake & Josh costar Josh Peck — 
pled no contest to two counts of child sexual abuse, and was sentenced to 
16 months in prison in 2004 and registered as a sex offender. 

Among the letter writers were Marsden, Taran Killam, Growing Pains stars 
Thicke and Joanna Kerns, Twin Peaks actress Kimmy Robertson, Boy Meets 
World actors Will Friedle and Rider Strong, American Horror Story actor 
Ron Melendez, and Amanda Show crewmembers Rich and Beth Correll.

Reps for Marsden, Killam, Robertson, Kerns, Friedle, Strong, Melendez, and 
Rich Correll did not immediately respond to EW’s request for comment. Beth 
Correll could not be reached for comment.

The docuseries shows an excerpt from Marsden’s letter, which says “I 
assure you, what Brian has been through in the last year is the suffering 
of a hundred men.” The doc noted that Marsden had known Peck since the 
Jury Duty star was a young teenager.

The letter from future Saturday Night Live cast member Killam, who also 
stared on The Amanda Show, included the sentence, “I have seen the affects 
this situations has had on Brian and I know for a fact that he regrets any 
mistakes made.”

In his letter, Thicke, who died in 2016, insisted Peck “was never 
inappropriate in any way.”

Meanwhile, Robertson wrote, “I believe with all my heart that Brian was 
pressured and pushed beyond belief before he caved in.”

Rich Correll’s letter said, “It would be my pleasure to…work with him 
again.” Once Peck was released from prison, the Corrells did indeed work 
with him again, this time on Disney Channel's The Suite Life With Zack and 
Cody. However, according to the doc, the Corrells stated that "they had no 
input or involvement" in Peck's casting, and said when they asked him 
about the case, "Mr. Peck simply replied that 'the problem had been 
resolved.'"

Quiet on Set makes a point to note that it is unknown what any of the 
letter writers were told about Peck's situation, and it's entirely 
possible documents may have been written in good faith due to 
misinformation about the case.

Kerns wrote in her letter, “I can only believe that there must have been 
some extreme situation or temptation exerted upon him to influence his 
actions.” She provided a follow-up statement that made it into the 
docuseries that said: “I have now learned that my letter of support was 
based on complete misinformation. Knowing what I know now, I never would 
have written the letter.”

Excerpts were not shown from the other letters. Friedle and Rider 
discussed regret over their friendship with Peck on a recent episode of 
Pod Meets World. "He didn’t say that nothing had happened," Rider said. 
"So by the time we heard about this case and knew anything about it, it 
was always in the context of, 'I did this thing, I am guilty. I am going 
to take whatever punishment the government determines, but I’m a victim of 
jailbait. There was this hot guy, I just did this thing and he’s 
underage.' And we bought that storyline. I never heard about the other 
things because, back then, you couldn’t Google to find out what people 
were being charged with. So in retrospect," Rider suggested, "he was 
making a plea deal and admitting one thing, which is all he admitted to 
us, but it looks like he was being charged with a series of crimes, which 
we did not know."

"There’s an actual victim here, and he turned us against the victim to 
where now we’re on his team,” Friedle said. “That’s the thing where, to 
me, I look back at that as my ever-loving shame for this entire [thing]. 
Getting taken in by somebody who’s a good actor and a manipulator, I could 
chalk that up to being young and that’s the way it is. It’s awful. I’m 
going to use that for my growth as a human being, but when there’s an 
actual victim involved and now I’m on the abuser’s side, that’s the thing 
I can’t get over and haven’t been able to get over."

Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV airs March 17 and 18 at 9 p.m. 
ET/PT on ID.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text 
"STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a 
certified crisis counselor.

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