Nickelodeon showrunner Dan Schneider apologises after claims of abuse and inappropriate behaviour

Published

3 months ago

March 20, 2024

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Dan Schneider has apologised for inappropriate behaviour on the sets of Nickelodeon shows.

The former producer, who was behind shows such as Drake and Josh, iCarly, Victorious and The Amanda Show, left Nickelodeon in 2018.

Over the weekend, several actors, staff and former child stars alleged abuse, inappropriate behaviour and a toxic work environment while working on Schneider’s shows in Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.

In a 20-minute video posted on YouTube on Tuesday, he called the docuseries “difficult” and “embarrassing” to watch.

“Facing my past behaviours – some of which are embarrassing and that I regret – and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider said.

In Quiet on Set, former writer for The Amanda Show Jenny Kilgen claimed Schneider would make inappropriate and sexual remarks on set and said he had asked her for a massage.

He said in his video it was “wrong” of him to do so, and added: “I apologize to anybody that I ever put in that situation, and even additionally, I apologize to the people who were walking around video village or wherever they happened, because there were lots of people there who witnessed it who also may have felt uncomfortable.”

Schneider also said that any questionable content or jokes in the shows he produced should be cut, adding: “Every one of those jokes was written for a kid audience because kids thought they were funny.

“Now we have some adults looking back at them 20 years later through their lens. I have no problem with that. Let’s cut those jokes out of the show.”

Schneider also reiterated there were “many, many levels of scrutiny” on his programmes, that multiple network executives approved the content and look of his shows, and dozens of adults were on set and never raised concerns.

Drake and Josh star Drake Bell also alleged on Quiet on Set that he was sexually abused by Brian Peck, a former dialogue coach at Nickelodeon.

A representative for Peck did not respond to a request for comment from Sky News’ partner outlet NBC News on Bell’s allegations in the docuseries.

Peck pleaded no contest to and was convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a 14- or 15-year-old child and oral copulation with a minor under 16, according to a case summary from Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Peck was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Bell said in Quiet on Set that Schenider was supportive of him.

When asked about Bells’s allegations of abuse, Schneider became emotional and said he did not hire Peck. He also called it the “darkest part of his career”.

In June 2021, Bell entered a guilty plea during a case involving attempted child endangerment. The charges related to an online incident involving a 15-year-old fan in 2017.

He was sentenced to two years of probation and 200 hours of community service.

A Nickelodeon spokesperson previously said in response to Quiet on Set: “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviours from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct.

“Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”

The New York Times reported in 2021 Nickelodeon cut ties with Schneider after an internal investigation found evidence of verbal abuse to colleagues. The investigation did not find evidence of sexual misconduct.

After Schneider’s video response, a spokesperson addressed the investigation and said “all that was found is that he was a challenging, tough and demanding person to work for and with, nothing else”.

Sky News has asked Dan Schneider’s representatives and Nickelodeon for comment.

US

Ruja Ignatova: FBI offers £4m reward in hunt for fugitive ‘Cryptoqueen’

Published

3 hours ago

June 27, 2024

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Ruja Ignatova: FBI offers £4m reward in hunt for fugitive 'Cryptoqueen'

A $5m (£4m) reward is being offered in the hunt for the fugitive “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova.

Bulgarian-born Ignatova, who has German citizenship, has been on the FBI’s most-wanted list since 2022 for fraud and money laundering.

The 43-year-old is accused of defrauding investors out of $4bn (£3.3bn) by selling a fake cryptocurrency called OneCoin, founded in Sofia in 2014.

The US agency, which has called OneCoin “one of the largest global fraud schemes in history”, previously offered a $100,000 (£82,463) reward for her capture.

However, that has now been raised to £4m.

“Ignatova is believed to travel with armed guards and/or associates. Ignatova may have had plastic surgery or otherwise altered her appearance,” states her FBI wanted poster.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria‘s chief prosecutor said on Wednesday he would press charges against Ignatova, who disappeared in late 2017.

“She will also be charged in absentia in our country, which will allow the start of a procedure for the confiscation of her illegally acquired property,” he said.

The FBI believes she could be using a German passport to travel to countries such as the UAE, Russia, Greece and Eastern Europe.

Ignatova’s last known movements were taking a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens on 25 October 2017.

She fled after bugging a flat belonging to her American boyfriend and learning he was cooperating with the FBI, according to prosecutors.

When it added her to the most-wanted list, the FBI said it believed she escaped with a “tremendous amount of cash” – enough to “buy a lot of friends”.

There has also been speculation she may have been murdered on the orders of the ‘Godfather’ of the Bulgarian mafia.

OneCoin co-founder Karl Sebastian Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in US prison last year and ordered to pay back $300m (£237m).

The fake cryptocurrency raked in huge amounts using a pyramid scheme model that offered commissions for members to entice others to get involved.

US

US presidential debate: Live event might expose ageing Biden while lack of audience could stump Trump

Published

3 hours ago

June 27, 2024

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US presidential debate: Live event might expose ageing Biden while lack of audience could stump Trump

Joe Biden’s age is written on his resting face, the one that stares into camera like it’s your fault.

It’s the look of his 81 years and it doesn’t look great on a debate stage – more ready for bed than for a second term.

It matters in Atlanta.

Biden enters the TV face-off ridiculed by opponents as mentally unfit for the job.

It’s a perception embedded in the public consciousness, fed by high-profile episodes of supposed “brain freeze” – this, despite a robust rejection of frailty by the White House.

A CBS/YouGov poll earlier this month found that only about a third of voters thought Biden had the cognitive ability to serve as president, compared with half for Trump.

How Biden performs in the hostile environment of a no-notes, live TV debate could be an occasion to confirm or confound age concern.

He needs to avoid reinforcing the notion of weakness.

If this occasion is pivotal in the presidential race, that’s where the pivot point lies.

Millions will watch the debate from start to finish but millions won’t – they’ll consume it via the social media breakdown and base their judgements accordingly.

Ninety minutes of television will come down, largely, to viral “moments”, cut and pasted as campaign touchstones to drive fundraising and political ads.

In the modern era, they are the moments that can define a political campaign and the difference between success and failure – a TV contest, and so more, could be lost on a momentary lapse.

Biden ‘shadow-boxing’ ahead of main event

The president and his team have been shadow-boxing through mock debates at his Camp David retreat. Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer has been playing the role of Trump.

Faking it in the Maryland hills will be in stark contrast to the real thing in Atlanta.

Presidential advisers who micro-manage their man and his environment will be throwing him solo into a situation uncontrolled and unpredictable.

They will settle for “State of the Union” Biden. In addressing America’s political establishment in March, his performance was suitably presidential.

As Democrats sighed relief, Trump growled resentment, accusing Biden of being “all jacked up” on cocaine.

He’s at it again, suggesting that the president will take a “shot in the ass” as a chemical booster ahead of the TV debate – in doing so, he’s laying the ground for a strong Biden performance, having previously written him off.

Trump’s less structured preparations

Donald Trump’s preparations have been less structured than Biden’s. Advisers have told him to focus on subject matter with which he scores best with voters – inflation, immigration and crime among them.

The two men haven’t been in the same room together since they last debated before the 2020 election.

Four years on, the conditions are different. There will be no studio audience for punchline response and reassurance, only a penetrating silence that will sharpen scrutiny – from the moderators and from each other.

Trump supporters suggest he’ll benefit from the absence of an audience because a calming effect will rein in his instinct towards belligerence.

His detractors counter that a Trump performance is built on crowd interaction and he’ll struggle in a sterile setting that requires rounded argument.

We’ll find out when the two old foes enter the stage, presumably with a handshake although that’s not been confirmed.

If the choreography allows, it will be the coldest greeting ahead of a hotly anticipated night.

US

US Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho

Published

9 hours ago

June 27, 2024

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US Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho

The US Supreme Court has ruled that emergency abortions in Idaho can go ahead.

When a patient’s health is at serious risk, hospitals in the northwestern state will be allowed to perform emergency abortions to protect their health.

This comes two years after the landmark overturning of Roe v Wade, when Idaho was among 14 states that outlawed abortion at all stages of pregnancy with incredibly limited exceptions.

The US justices found that the court pre-emptively got involved in the case, and a 6-3 majority reinstated a lower court order that had allowed hospitals in the state to perform emergency abortions to protect a patient’s health.

The opinion means the Idaho case will continue to play out in lower courts, and could end up before the Supreme Court again.

So the same justices who voted to overturn the constitutional right to abortion could soon be again considering when doctors can provide abortion in medical emergencies – meaning the issue is still far from settled.

The Supreme Court previously allowed the ban, which does permit abortion to save a pregnant patient’s life, to go into effect.

But since, several women have needed medical air lifts out of state in cases where abortion is routine treatment to avoid infection, haemorrhage and other dire health risks, Idaho doctors have said.

It was previously reported by Bloomberg that the Supreme Court briefly posted the opinion on the court’s website, before taking it down.

The Supreme Court acknowledged that a document was inadvertently posted on Wednesday before the decision was confirmed Thursday.

President Joe Biden, in a statement, said: “Today’s Supreme Court order ensures that women in Idaho can access the emergency medical care they need while this case returns to the lower courts.

“No woman should be denied care, made to wait until she’s near death, or forced to flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs.

“This should never happen in America. Yet, this is exactly what is happening in states across the country since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”

The court ruling is expected to have a significant effect on emergency care in other states with strict abortion bans.

However, the procedural ruling has left key questions unanswered and it does not resolve the issues at the heart of the case.

Most Republican-controlled states began enforcing abortion restrictions two years ago – in the aftermath of the constitutional ruling.

Already there have been an increase in reports of pregnant women being turned away from US emergency rooms following the high court’s 2022 ruling.

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