Dan Schneider in 2014
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Dan Schneider sued Investigation Discovery for defamation over his performance in Quiet on set: The dark side of children’s televisionaccusing the company of falsely implying that he had sexually abused children who worked on the Nickelodeon series he created and directed.
Schneider, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims her portrayal in the five-part docuseries is a “hit job.” While it is true that two child sex abusers worked on TV shows, he claims he had “no knowledge of their abuse”, condemned them and “was not an abuser himself sex of children”.
“But for the sake of clickbait, ratings and opinions – or in other words, money – defendants destroyed Schneider’s reputation and legacy through false statements and implications that Schneider is exactly that,” the lawsuit says.
Warner Bros. Discovery, which distributed the project on Max, and producers Maxine Productions and Sony Pictures Television are also named in the complaint. Schneider is seeking unspecified damages and a court order requiring the producers to remove the allegedly defamatory portions of the docuseries or have them removed altogether.
In a statement, Schneider acknowledged “the mistakes I made and the poor judgment I demonstrated during my time at Nickelodeon” but said he had “no choice but to “take legal action against the people behind all this.” He added: “They went beyond simply stating the truth and falsely implied that I was involved in or facilitated horrific crimes for which actual child predators have been prosecuted and convicted. »
Investigation Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The docuseries, which debuted in March to massive audiences, chronicles Schneider’s rise to becoming a prolific producer of children’s television series. Among the allegations against the producer are that he largely tolerated a toxic workplace and humiliated cast and crew on his television sets. In the third episode, Drake Bell, the star of Drake and Josh And The Amanda show, introduced herself as the then-unnamed victim in the Brian Peck sexual assault case. In a video posted after the project’s release, Schneider said he did not hire the dialogue coach who was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting Bell.
In the complaint, Schneider challenges the producers, implying that he sexually abused children who worked on his shows. He points to the first episode’s opening graphic that read: “This series investigated the abuse children suffered at the hands of the adults they were supposed to trust.” Later in the episode, a social media post accuses him of “inappropriate behavior”, followed by images depicting him with his arm around a child actress.
To support the allegedly false claims that he was a child predator, the lawsuit says the documentary series explores the “perversion” of the shows he created. There are statements from people in the docuseries that Schneider “made” the children “do things that were very bizarre” in “setups that referenced pornography,” according to the complaint.
The episode ends with a reporter’s voiceover stating that an “alleged child predator accused of kissing and touching a nine-year-old girl” has been arrested, but that law enforcement believes ” that there could be more victims,” the lawsuit states. Schneider claims that producers intentionally chose not to show the attacker’s image or name so that viewers would conclude that he was the predator.
In the second episode, viewers learn about the sex attackers, Peck and Jason Handy. The lawsuit targets the docuseries repeatedly cutting to footage of him while discussing the duo. He claims that the episode “continues its manipulative use of editing and photographs to confuse Schneider” with Peck and that it “exaggerates” their relationship.
Schneider, in the lawsuit, maintains he was unaware of Peck’s crimes until it became public and that he did not commit any sex crimes. “The only reason to include Schneider’s image in this context was to wrongly equate Schneider with Peck; the viewer must infer that just as Peck was a child sex offender, so was Schneider,” the complaint states.
Notably, the producers, at one point in the documentary series, note that Schneider did not engage in inappropriate sexual behavior after ViacomCBS, Nickelodeon’s then-parent company, launched an investigation. He cites the inclusion of the information as proof that the producers were aware they were making false claims.
Schneider points out that the docuseries should have made it clear in the trailer or early episodes that he didn’t commit any sex crimes. He claims the producers acted with “real malice and willful disregard for the truth,” a necessary element to establish defamation as a public figure. According to the complaint, they chose not to include an interview with a former Nickelodeon content president who Schneider said refuted the allegedly defamatory story.
Following the massive success of Calm on set, the filmmakers released a bonus episode and said they planned to continue investigating children’s entertainment in Hollywood. The docuseries posted Max’s best streaming numbers to date when it debuted on March 17.
Gn entert
News Source : www.hollywoodreporter.com
