The Next Star - Where Are They Now?

 Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog, I decided to talk about one of my favourite topics. The Next Star. Not just that, but where they are now. But instead of me going there everyone not The Next Star, I am just gonna talk about the contestant who are not singing anymore. Before I do get started, I want to say, I think I am going to do blogs in the summer when I have time off work. Now that I said that, I also want to say that I have 5 on this list. It would be insensitive of me having JD from The Next Star 4 on this list, cause he died a few years ago. On a happier note. Here are the 5 who are on the list. In season order. That is just me lol.  

Maranda Thomas - Maranda was on The Next Star in 2008 during season 1. Since she was on Te Next Star, I saw somewhere that she got married and was on 16 episodes of Lost & Found Music Studio as Mary on Family Channel in 16 episodes out of all 26 episodes.

Isabelle Stern - Isabelle was on The Next Star in 2010 on season 3. After she was on the show she recorded some covers and then was on the spin-off show, The Next Star: SuperGroup. after the spin-off show she got her Real Estate license in Montreal, and now also in Florida. And what I see on Instagram she is rocking at being in Real Estate. 

Victoria Duffield - Like Isabelle Stern, Victoria was also on The Next Star season 3 in 2010.  After the show she kept releasing music since 2011 till 2019. Victoria was in fact the inspiration for this blo. After her last CD, titled, Day Won, I was wondering what happened to her. This year, 2025, I got my answer. She ended up leaving music behind and got involved in Real Estate for RE/MAX.

Shania Scichilone - Shania was on the season 4 of The Next Star in 2011. After her time on the show, she continued recording singles, and like, Isabelle Stern, she was also on the spin-off show, The Next Star: SuperGroup. After all that, she got married and became an Author. Her book series is a Fantasy series called, A Fate Of series. Her debut, Fate Of Smoke & Ash came out on Halloween 2022, and her second one, Fate Of God & Fire came out on October 13m 2023. I even met her at a book convention in Toronto last year, on August 2024.

Brooklyn Roebuck - Brooklyn was on The Next Star 5 in 2012 and unlike anyone on this list, she won The Next Star. After the show she ended up recording her 2 winning singles in 2012 and a year later in 2013. She also recorded an EP and a few single after that. She got married, became a Hairdresser, and had a baby boy in January 2025.

Dark Nickelodeon

Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog I am going to not, not a happy blog about Nickelodeon. As you can see in the title, it's dark. I read Jennette McCrudy's memoir titled, I'm Glad My Mom Died in 2022. Then I started seeing pictures and hearing about Amanda Bynes. Then in 2024 I watched, Quiet On Set and after hearing about Drake Bell, I really wanted to do a blog on this. I had this blog idea sitting on my shelf with dust for year. Not just because I been working, and summer is the only time I can do this. But this blog is very lengthy. Especially when I am talking about Drake Bell & Brandi.

For everyone, like me, watched Nickelodeon growing up. Yes, I watched Nick, but I was more of a Disney kid. But I watched All That, The Amanda Show, Zoey 101, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Drake & Josh, ICarly, Victorious, The Haunted Halfways, The Thunderman. And some others on YTV in Canada. But I am sorry, but, I am going to ruin your childhood with this blog. I am sorry that this is very lengthy. I was trying to get every detail I could. 

Jennette McCrudy - Jennette was on ICarly and Sam & Cat. But didn’t come back for Carly 2.0. At a young age, Jennette would do anything for her mom. Her mom wanted to be an actress, but her mom’s parents didn’t want her too. So she made her only daughter, Jennette be an actress. Jennette’s mom would manipulate Jennette when she wanted to quit and taught her how to calorie count to stay small and skinny. Jennette one told her mom that she wanted to be a writer instead of an actress, but all her mom said was that writers is not a real job and they all get fat for just sitting around and doing nothing. When she was on Sam & Cat she was not allowed to take off a week, but she stated saying that her costar, Ariana Grande could take a week off for her music and to have a game night at Tom Hanks’ house. After Jennette’s mom died in 2013 she came out saying "I was on a show at 13 to 25, and by 15 I was already embarrassed. My friends at 15 weren't watching the shows saying 'Oh cool, you're on this Nickelodeon show.' it was embarrassing."  Jennette Almohad an eating disorder and even began to drink heavily.

Alexa Nikolas - Alexa was Nicole on Zoey 101, but didn't come back after season 2 in 2006. Alexa was emotionally abused by Dan Schneider at Nickelodeon. While filming Zoey 101, Jamie Lynn accused Alexa for bulling her and got her sister, Brittany Spears to yell at Alexa. When she did no bullying. Also one day she was crying and Dan said “What now?” And threw a DVD player to her and basically told her to get over it. Plus whenever she was in wardrobe for Zoey 101 she would spin around for Dan Schneider and he saying to the wardrobe person that he wants the polaroids of Alexa in every outfit she tries on. 

Allie DiMeco - Allie was on the Nickelodeon show, The Naked Brother Band, in 2007 to 2009 where she was forced to kiss a man way older than her. After telling the producers no, multiple times, her mom went to Nickelodeon and told them no. If she wasn’t gonna do it, she was gonna loose her job. There was another time when she had to kiss Nat on Naked Brothers Band show, and she didn’t have her first kiss yet. She didn’t want her first kiss on TV. After she told her mom, her mom went to the producers and writers sating that she doesn’t want to do this. They threatened her that she would loose her job. After her mom said to the producers that Allie is not doing this, rewrite the script. The female producer grabbed Allie and kissed her and said “There, your first kiss is over. And now go film”

Drake Bell - Before Drake Bell got his own show with Josh Peck, called Drake &. Josh in 2004 till 2007, he was on The Amanda Show with Josh Peck. While continuing reading, keep in mind that Josh Peck does not have any family relation with this guy. You will understand if you watched Quiet On Set and/or keep up with Drake Bell. Drake started acting at 5 years old. His dad saw in a parenting magazine that there was an add for The Kids Hollywood Connection, and started from there. When he was getting older he booked guess roles on show. When he was 12 he got an audition for The Amanda Show, and Dan walked to him and told him that Amanda wants him on the show. In 2000 him and his dad went to Nickelodeon On Sunset he got introduced to the dialog coach, Brian Peck. They hit it off, when him and Drake would talk about old Hollywood. Brian ended up being Drake’s acting and dialog coach. He told Drake to come to his house, cause that is where he gives the lessons. Drake’s dad always had an eye out on Brian, even though. Everything looked normal. His dad noticed that Brian was hanging out with Drake more and more. And it didn’t set right with him. If Drake was in his dressing room, Brain would go in and touch him and helping him get ready for his shoot. Then he would put his hand on Drake’s waist or shoulder and run his arm down Drake’s arm while going over lines. His dad told the producers that he was getting uncomfortable around his son. During a tapping of the Drake & Josh sketch on The Amanda Show and one of the writers leaned over to Dan and said “Nickelodeon is looking for a new ‘Buddy Comedy’. Their’s your buddies right there”. Dan took Drake & his dad out for lunch to talk about the new comedy. Right after that Brian told Drake that he will be his new manger and Drake’s dad comfort Brian. Brian started to insert himself into Drake’s concerts. Drake’s dad booked Drake and his band at the Strawberry Festival and Brian and his friends show up and follow Drake around the whole festival.  In 2001 Drake had a party for the 15th birthday and Brian decided that the party should be at his house, but it made it easy, cause everyone he wanted there was on the show who lived near Brain. Later Drake’s dad sees birthday cards from Brian’s friends and they were really inappropriate with adult content in them. Brian later caught on that Drake’s dad has an eye on him and started to make a wedge between Drake and his dad by making up lies. Brain also got an attorney to find out about Drake’s financials. There was never any mishandling of funds. After Drake’s mom told his dad that Drake doesn’t want him as a manger anymore, his dad handed everything to his mom and told Do Not leave Drake alone with Brian and always keep an eye on him. Brian tricked his mom. He told Drake that they will go to Disneyland. Since his mom hated driving, Brian would pick him up for auditions. Drake would also stay the night cause Drake lived an hour away. Drake was sleeping at Brian’s one night on the couch, and he woke up to Brian s*xually a$$aulting him. Drake was 15. Still, he kept going to Brian’s house for work and it got worse, & worse as time went on. When they started casting for Drake & Josh, Brian wanted to play the dad. Brian was also rehashing him and rehashing his girlfriend when Drake got a girlfriend. It took his girlfriend’s mom 6 seconds to catch on. One day Drake was on the phone with his mom and just exploded and told her everything. His mom immediately called the police. Next thing is, the detective was asking Drake what happed. He had to go into detail on everything that had happen and call Brian Peck to get him to admit it. Brian got arrested in August 2003. After Brian got arrested Dan called Drake to ask if this was cause of him. Drake said yes. After Drake said yes, Dan just asked if Drake was alright. Drake called his dad and told him that they arrested Brian Peck on molestaon. Drake’s dad was glad to hear this and said “You’re kidding. I knew it. I am glad that he was not able to get his hands on you.” In fall of 2003, a few weeks after Brian’s arrest he started shooting Drake & Josh. Dan was the only person from Nickelodeon was their for him. In October 2004 they went to setencing. Drake was hoping he’d go to jail and be there for a while and never work with kids again. Since Drake was a minor when this happed, he is mentioned as John Doe in the court room. Brian’s side of the court room was entirely full with some recognizable faces and Drake only had himself, his brother, and his mom. Even though Brian was convicted he was getting all this support from the industry. In the end, Brian pleads no contest to two charges of child s*xal abuse. And the judge sends him to 16 months in jail and ordered him to register as a s*x offender. Brian had 41 letters of support from family, friends, and other actors/actress. Brian later works on The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody as London’s talking mirror.

Amanda Bynes - After Amanda did a comedy routine at the Laugh Factory at the age of 10, Dan saw something in her. And wants her on All That immediately in 1996. Sometimes when the kids were at school on set, Amanda would be missing to write with Dan and pitching ideas off of each other. By the time she was 16 she was famous and was everywhere, and Dan ended up creating What I Like About You for her in 2002 on the WB. Dan wanted to help in every way. After Amanda tariff to get emancipated from her parents, it created a rife between Dan and her parents. The trail for Amanda to get emancipated went wrong. After that, that was the end of Dan and Amanda’s relationship.

Katrina Johnson - Katrina was a cast member on All That from 1994 till 1997. During her time on All That, Dan Schneider choose her to be the IT girl. He also called her parents in talk of getting her own show on Nickelodeon before The Amanda Show. That all changed when the producers called her parents and said “Hey, Katrina is getting too fat. We already have a fat one, she can’t be the fat one”. This was also when she was taking dance class 6 hours a day and shortly after that call she was going through puberty. When the producers saw that, they freaked out, cause she looked like a women instead of little kid they hired and then that was an issue.After she realized that Amanda Bynes was the new favourite, she was spending less and less time with Dan. Later decided to go to college

Brandi - Brandi was a guess star on The Amanda Show in season 2. Even though she never appears on Quiet On Set, her mom, MJ did and told us what happened with her daughter, Brandi when she was on Nickelodeon. MJ wanted to become an actress when she was younger, but with her parents in the film industry they didn’t want their kids anywhere near that. Years later, her daughter wanted to act on a kids show. Brandi loved The Amanda Show. After she booked a guess role on The Amanda show in 2000, she felt like she was on cloud 9. Since the parents were not allowed on set, the kids were greeting with a P.A, Jason Handy to take the kids around set and get them comfortable on set. Brandi told her mom that Jason was exchanging numbers with her and the other kids and email with them. After her episode of The Amanda Show she got an email from Jason that sounded innocent and let her mom read it.  One day on AOL Messenger she email Jason and her wanted to meet Brandi somewhere. Here mom didn’t let her, cause she always wanted a parent present if they were hanging out with a person they don’t know. But he really wanted to meet her. A few months later she was at the computer and shut it down completely and slammed her door. What Jason sent her was a nude picture of himself masterbating to show Brandi he was thinking of her. Since then, she stoped acting, and never returned. In 2003 a deceptive from the L.A Police Department called MJ and told her that Jason got arrested and searched his home. They found this enormous bag of child pronography. With over 10,000 images of children, including 1,768 images of young girls in erotic poses, 238 images of young girls in sexually explicit poses, 2 images of girls engaged in ‘Bondage Activity’. There is more, but I am leaving that here. The reason why I am writing this all is cause they found a plastic ziplock baggie with Brandi’s name on one with. There was never any apology for Brandi.There was no recent picture of Brandi, so I had to use a child photo of her.

High Potential TV Show Review

 Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog I am going to review a new TV show that came out on September 17, 2024, called, High Potential. But before I start on the blog, I do want to say that since I am now busy now, the blogs will come will I can write them.

On September 17, 2024, CTV got a new Drama show, called High Potential. Here is what High Potential is about, if you did not know; Follows Morgan, a single mother of three kids and how thanks to her exceptional mind, she is able to helot solve a crime as she rearrange evidence during her shift as a cleaner for the police department.

The Cast:

Katilin Olson as Morgan Gillory

Daniel Sunjata as Adam Karadec

Javicia Leslie as Daphne Forrster 

Judy Reyes as Selena Soto

Deniz Akdeniz as Lev 'Oz' Osman 

Matthew Lamb as Elliot Radovic

Amirah J as Ava

I think in the middle of August I saw trailers of a bunch of new shows and made a mental note with the ones I want to watch. High Potential was one of them. On September 17, I remembered to turn the show on at 7:15pm. It was alright. The week after I remembered the show was on at 7:30pm. By the third week, I didn't turn the show back on and haven't watched it since. High Potential wasn't for me. If I keep forgetting to turn the show on, it's not for me

It Ends With Us Movie Review

 Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog I am going to be doing a Movie Review of the new movie, It Ends With US, that came out on August 9, 2024. It Ends With Us is based on the book with the same name by Colleen Hoover. 

Before I go on with this review, this blog might be a little long just cause I want to talk about Colleen a little and the drama that came with the release of the movie along with how I heard about Colleen, how I read the books, and my feelings on the movie. 

On August 9, 2024 It Ends With Us hit theatres. It Ends With Us is baed on a book by Colleen Hoover. If you have not seen the movie or read the books, here is what they are about; Lilly overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lilly begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship.

The Cast:

Blake Lively as Lilly Bloom

Justin Baldoni as Ryle Kincaid  (director) 

Jenny Slate as  Allysa 

Hasan Minhaj as Marshall

Brandon Sklenar as Atlas Corrigan

Kevin McKkid as Andrew Bloom

Amy Morton as Jenny Bloom

Alex Neustaedter as Younger Atlas

Isabela Ferrer as Younger LillyBloom

How I first heard about Colleen Hoover was from BookTube (YouTubers talking about books) and hearing that a lot of people don't like her and that her books are laced as "Romance" the they are not. So I didn't know if I wanted to try them. Bt actually after hearing about her book November 9th I wanted to check it out. Then for my 31st birthday Natalie gave me It Ends With Us and the second one It Ens With Us by Colleen Hoover. I wanted to try them. Somehow I came across that there was a book to movie of It Ends With Us coming out in July. I wanted to read the book quick. Then I see that it was coming out August 9, 2024. I had time to read it. That was actually gonna be a big weekend for me. Meeting Shania Scichilone on the 10th and seeing Avril Lavigne on the 12th. Plus I thought since Natalie gave me the books, she come se the movie with me. On August 7, 2024 I was reading the It Ends With Us and wanted to look something up about the movie and I saw that the movie was playing the next day by me. I didn't know what to do. To make this blog a little shorter, I decided to wait when I was with Natalie to see the movie. On August 10, 2024 while driving to Toronto to meet Shania Scichilone Natalie thought us 3 can go see the movie when Brad was at his party at 6:20pm that night. I loved the movie. It was rally accurate to the book. Except after Allysa had her baby that is when some of the movie got mixed up from the book. I mean, if you read the book, some of the things in the movie that happened before Allysa had her baby and in the movie they happened after Allysa had her baby. But that is alright. The movie was in my Top 5. That is how much I loved it. And my favourite scene, the Onesies scenes were in the movie.

Now, I will talk about the drama. The day after, on August 11, 2024 I saw that the cast and crew had drama. During promotion of the movie, It was pretty much Lilly (Lively) & Atlas (Sklenar) were doing interviews together, and when the cast did interviews all together, Ryle (Baldoni & Director) was never with them. Also when Baldoni did interviews by himself, he would talk about the meaning behind the movie and I heard that the rest of the cast is making it more like a RomCom. Again, this is what I am hearing and reading. Plus, the cast is following each other, but not following Justin Baldoni. Not even Colleen Hoover, but he is following everyone. Here is something I don't like. I know why they relate 2 movies a week or 2 after each other for competitive, but I don't like that husbands movie and wife's movie are the 2 movies. Ryan Reynolds is in Deadpool & Wolverine and Blake Lively is in It Ends With Us and the last movie I saw before this movie was Deadpool & Wolverine. I feel like both of them are gonna be the biggest movies of 2024. Why put Ryan & Blake compete against each other? I also heard that Ryan works on every project Blake does. The rooftop scene in the movie is written by Ryan. As much as Justin Bladoni looks a lot like Joe Jonas to me, and I don't like the Jonas Brothers at all, I agree with him on the meaning of the movie. But like I said, this movie is in my Top 5. Justin Bladoni also directed the movie Clouds & 5 Feet Apart. Clouds is one of my favourites.

My top5 movies are; Simon Birch, Love Simon, No Hard Feelings, & It Ends With Us. Clouds is in my top 10 favourite movies 

Meeting Shania Scichilone

 Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog I am going to talk about Meeting Shania Scichilone on August 10, 2024. Here is the whole story. First for anyone who doesn't know Shania, let me tell you.

Shania  Fillmore (Fillmore is her maiden name) was on a show on YVT called The Next Star back in season in 2011. She was my favourite one. Since 2011 we been talking on Facebook and became internet friends. We only Skype once in 2014 and just continue talking on Facebook (Now we switch back and forward from Facebook & Instagram lol).

On March 25, 2024 I was watching people play darts at dart league cause my team & I were done and we were just drinking, talking and watching people. I decided to go on Instagram, cause I had some power on my phone lol. I saw that Shania announce another book signing in Toronto. I quickly messaged Natalie to let her know and see if we can go. Just cause we were seeing Avril Lavigne & Simple Plan on Monday August 12, 2024. She said yes we can. The next day when I bought the tickets, cause my phone died. I wanted it to be a surprise to Shania that I was coming, but I needed her help to buy tickets (you needed to order them off there website, it's not like buying tickets to a play, concert, or movie). On June 22, 2024 that is when I finally got emailed the receipt. I am glad that I didn't right.

On August 10, 2024, I am just gonna skip to the Ignite Your Soul Author Event. After all 4 of us got signed in the our lanyards (Natalie's 2 younger kids Josie & Bradley came too). I went right in and Josie followed. Nalie found us at Shania's panel. Brad found jollyranchers and then us lol. Before Natalie & Brad found us, I just stood off to the side with Josie, so Shania can finish talking to the others. My heart was beating so loud. After they were done she saw me and gave me a hug, and then gave Josie a hug. When Natalie & Brad did catch us we all ended up talking. Josie got her books signed. Then probably 5 minutes later I got my books signed. After me telling Shania maybe, 50 times that we are gonna walk around and come back, we finally did that LOL. 

While Josie & I walked around I bought a book by Shama Gray called The Nashville Bet and then got free books. Josie & I grabbed a lot of stickers and bookmarks. After we walked around the whole thing we made it back to Shania.

When we finally left the book signing we stopped at a mall so Natalie can charge the car. We all had Sushi for a late lunch, we dropped Brad off at his party, and then Natalie Josie, and myself went to go see It Ends With Us at the movies. I will be having a Movie Review up tomorrow about that movie.

It was a big and busy day.

Junebug Movie Review

 Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog I am going to ACTUALLY do a Movie Review on a new movie which just came out on August 3, 2024. Hallmark came out with a new movie, called, Junebug on August 3, 2024. I do want to do a Movie Review on Emma Roberts new movie, Space Cadet, which came out on July 4, 2024. But, let's focus on Junebug on this blog.

On August 3, 2024 Hallmark came out with a new movie called, Junebug. What Junebug is about, is; Juniper, a book editor turning 40 is magically reconnected with an eight-year-old version of herself who questions her life choices, including her dream of writing her own stories. Here is the movie cover and the cast.

The Cast

Autumn Reeser as Juniper 

Aaron O'Connell as Alex

Mila Jones as Junebug

Donia Kash as Mikah

Lauren K Robek as Paula

Cheyenne Rouleau as Kate

Chenier Hundal as Ethan

Stellina Rusich as Mae

John Murphy as Tom

Bernie Yao as Rob

On July 23, 2024 I was online trying to find a list of all Hallmark movies for an idea I want to do. Then I saw that it said. Junebug on August 3, 2024. Looking at the title I wanted to check out the movie. On July 28, 2024 I was watching A Word Record Christmas. Yes, I love Christmas, but I am that person who doesn't watch anything Christmas until November. It was based on True Events. Anyway, back to Junebug. What I been saying is that during a commercial break from A World Record Christmas I saw the trailer for Junebug. I just pointed at the TV and said to myself "I remember seeing that on the computer. That made me want to watch it. On August 3, 2024 I was playing fetch with Dodge and then I remember that the movie Junebug was on at 8pm. I watched it, until Dodge wanted out and play more fetch lol. I missed a bit of the movie.. But the movie was cute. I also enjoyed that the romance was not the big part, like in most Hallmark movies. But anyway, this movie was cute and I really enjoyed it.

Arthur The King Movie Review

 Hey my lovely Chameleons. In today's blog I am going to do another over due movie review that is in my favourite movie genre. True Stories. I eat True Stories up. I love them. Yes, there are a few that I don't like. This True Story Movie Review is on Arthur The King. Arthur The King came out to the movies on March 15, 2024.

Arthur The King hit theatres on March 15, 2024 and this movie is about; A true story of an adventure racer  adopts a stray dog named Arthur to join him an epic endurance race. Here is the movie cover and the cast.

The Cast

Mark Wahlberg as Michael Light

Ukai as Arthur

Simu Liu as Leo

Juliet Rylance as Helen

Nathalie Emmanuel as Olivia

Ali Suliman as Chik

Bear Grylls as Himself

Paul Guilfoyle as Charlie

Rob Collins as Decker

On January 17, 2024 I was on Instagram and I came across a post from Mark Wahlberg and Arthur The King movie's Instagram shared post about the movie. I decided to look up the movie and I saw that I'd based on a True Story. And I noticed that Arthur looks like Dodge. My 3 favourite things in one movie; Mark Wahlberg, a dog who looks like Dog, and it's based on a True Story. On March 15, 2024 I was looking on the cineplex website and nothing. Every day I was looking to see if it was out in Canada. On April 24, 2024 I decided to just look foe the movie on a streaming site. I found it. I bawled my eyes out and liked the movie, but I didn't feel like Arthur The King was Top Tier for me. But I did really enjoy it.