Lori Beth Denberg, who appeared on “All That,” told Business Insider that he showed her porn multiple times and fondled her once. He says her claims are “exaggerated” and “in most cases, false.”
Lori Beth Denberg, who starred in the hit children’s television show “All That” in the 1990s, has accused her former Nickelodeon boss, Dan Schneider, of having “preyed” on her then by showing her pornography, once fondling her and another time initiating phone sex.
The allegations by Denberg, now 48, came in an interview with Business Insider, which reported on Tuesday that the actress said she felt Schneider had acted inappropriately toward her during a period when they worked together. She said that, at 19, she entered into a “weird, abusive relationship” with Schneider, who was 10 years older.
“I couldn’t have been more vulnerable,” she said in the interview.
The interview comes as Schneider’s conduct while at Nickelodeon has drawn scrutiny in a new docuseries that aired in March: “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.” In the series, several former employees criticized the way Schneider treated them — saying, among other things, that he solicited massages on set — while also objecting to sexualized humor in his shows and inappropriate jokes in the writers’ room.
In the interview with Business Insider, Denberg said that she sometimes slept over at the home of Schneider, who was the head writer on “All That,” and that, although they were not intimate, they exchanged massages. At one point, though, she said in the interview, she won a bet while watching “Jeopardy!,” and Schneider took the opportunity to fondle and put his mouth on her breasts.
Denberg starred in “All That” between 1994 and 1998 and returned for its revival several years ago. She told Business Insider she did not necessarily see their interactions as inappropriate at the time, given that she was older than 18, but that in recent years she has begun to grapple with the power imbalance that existed between her and Schneider. She said that he showed her porn on multiple occasions and that the first time was in his office.
In a statement, Schneider, who has filed a lawsuit against the creators of the “Quiet on Set” docuseries alleging defamation, called Denberg’s account “wildly exaggerated and, in most cases, false.”
