Never thought that it’d be so simple! The Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh premiered in January 2004, launching The Amanda Show alums Drake Bell and Josh Peck to mainstream teen stardom and introducing audiences to Miranda Cosgrove.
“I met Miranda Cosgrove when she was 9 years old, like, auditioning to play my little sister. I was 14. Now she’s a fully grown human, she drives her Mercedes. She’s doing great,” Peck said of his onscreen stepsister at the April 2022 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, per E! News.
The Happy People Are Annoying author added that he still had familial feelings toward his former costar. “I feel like her older brother. I feel protective of her. I’m like, ‘Who are you dating and is he nice to you?’” he explained.
Peck hasn’t maintained the same close bond with Bell, who played his sometimes-rival, sometimes-buddy stepbrother on the teen comedy series. Ten years after the show wrapped in 2007, Bell took to social media to hint that he was hurt by not being invited to Peck’s June 2017 nuptials to Paige O’Brien.
“True colors have come out today,” the “I Know” musician wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “Message is loud and clear. Ties are officially cut. I’ll miss you brother.”
A source told Us Weekly at the time that the duo hadn’t spoken in three years. “Josh was really hurt,” the insider said. “They aren’t close anymore and Josh had a very small wedding.”
The two actors buried the hatchet later that year and shared a photo of them embracing at the MTV VMAs in August. “Hug me …,” they both captioned the snap, referencing their Drake & Josh catchphrase.
Despite the sweet moment, the former costars continued to have beef in subsequent years. In March 2022, Bell and his wife, Janet Von Schmeling, talked about a Drake & Josh reboot script allegedly written by Peck on an episode of their podcast, “Drake & Janet.”
“It wasn’t the best. Josh wrote Drake as a failed musician and Josh wrote himself as a real estate agent. OK, that’s fine, but Drake is a musician in real life, so it wouldn’t make sense,” Von Schemling claimed.
Bell replied, alleging, “I just asked him to change a couple things and he couldn’t and my wife wouldn’t let me do it.”
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