Perhaps against my better judgment, I like Demi Lovato quite a bit. I’m not particularly fond of her crazy hats and apparent 1980s Madonna style fetish, but she’s a pretty good egg for a Disney kid and a girl who seemingly can’t help but constantly fall back into Wilmer Valderrama’s arms. Talk about a potentially fatal flaw, right?
Still, Demi has a very decent set of wits about her and has admitted when she’s been out of line in the past. She’s also in the very precarious process of recovering from an eating disorder, which she talked about at great length and for which she suffers horrible comments after gaining back some much needed weight. So it comes as great news to learn that Demi stook up against the House of Mouse and called out a very tasteless eating-disorder joke made by a character on the “Shake It Up” show — a revolting program filled with brats that deserves to be called out for a lot more:
Demi Lovato’s health has improved since seeking treatment for “emotional and physical issues” a year ago, but the topic of food is still a sensitive one.
After watching a recent episode of the Disney Channel’s “Shake It Up,” the actress, 19, took to Twitter to express her anger and disapproval after a character made the comment, “I could just eat you up, well, if I ate,” in jest.
“What are we promoting here? #notfunnyATALL,” she Tweeted on Friday. “I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actress’ from the pressures of an EATING DISORDER and yet still make [a] joke about [it].”
And the network took notice.
Later that day, Lovato got a response from a Disney Channel rep, who said they were pulling the episode she originally referred to, along with an episode of So Random! that also pokes fun at food issues.
“It’s NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders!” @DisneyChanelPR wrote shortly after Lovato’s comments.
The “Skyscraper” singer thanked the network, but added that she misses the days when actresses like Raven-Symoné and Hilary Duff were on the channel because now everyone on it seems to be “getting THINNER AND THINNER.”
[From People]
Don’t you love how Disney Channel’s PR immediately responded when Demi brought the issue to light? They should know what’s on their programs and catch this crap before the script even makes it into the hands of its actors. But of course it takes one of their former sitcom stars calling them out to take even the slightest notice of a problem that could (and does) influence far too many young girls. Shame on Disney Channel and good for Demi.
Photos courtesy of Fame
Great job-I hope she channels her stuggles into helping others.
She and Oscar Barbie have the same look in the picture wiht the pink dress.
more people need to call them out. good for her. but, she really needs to quit the boy george hats.
She is right. I was a teenager in the late ’90s and I remember the girls in the tv shows, even even when they were skinny, they looked athletic, toned, and somehow normal, now they all look like they need to start eating solid foods.
Ah! The ’90s! Every time I think about them, I get so overwhelmed with nostalgia!
Good for her, but on a different note, she needs a stylist in the worst way.
That cranberry gown looks like it belongs on a desparate 37-year old, mom-of-two-out-of-control boys divorcee who’s on the prowl.
Just like how there were CONSTANT fat jokes about the not-fat Tracey Gold’s character on “Growing Pains,” and then — surprise == she became anorexic. It’s sickening. It’s a bunch of guys in their 20’s, and guys who still think they are in their 20s, who run Hollywood.
I feel about Miley how you feel about Demi — I like the kid. Demi seems like a good egg, too.
Omg, yes! It always mystified me that Tracey Gold was supposedly fat. She want chubby by any stretch of the imagination. It’s horrid what they do to people, especially, women about their weight.
Good for her. I have to ask though: who did the Disney Channel lose to an eating disorder? Is she referring to herself? Because the wording makes it sound like someone died.
Good for Demi Lovato for taking as stand on this – eating disorders are no laughing matter – perhaps Demi Moore should take note.
One more reason I never let my kids watch the Disney Channel. It used to have good stuff (20-30 years ago) but now it’s just crap.
I’m going to go against the grain here — the tweeting about Raven and Hilary was out of line, and Demi needs to stop dressing like Wynonna Judd, because she looks like a self-righteous, color-blind and taste-deprived ass. Raven has made clear that she needed to lose weight – and she has, and frankly looks better and says she feels better for it. So highlighting how she looked during her show as a good thing – when the young woman herself says the opposite, and nothing suggests Raven is anorexic, bulimic, or otherwise disordered with food – is presumptuous, disingenuous and obnoxious as hell.
Valderama is a skeeve and predator. However: Demi never, ever truly came clean about physically attacking an underling (she soft-pedaled all over the place, in every interview – she punched someone in the face without warning or provocation, and has never truly apologized for it), and there were barely-blind items galore about what a coked-out little bitch she was to many people. It’s so convenient to place most if not all of her problems at the feet of the big mouse, or media images of women, instead of starlet entitlement, inchoate anger at a less-successful transition to young adult success than actresses like the Fannings or Gomez or Cyrus, and a raging love of coke. She’s full of it IMO.
I’m with you for the first bit. Raven did need to lose weight and looks better having done so.
Have never heard anything about the second bit.
I totally agree. As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder for the majority of my teen years, I don’t feel the things she talk about are completely authentic, which may seem out of line. I’m glad she’s raising awareness about it, but where are our metals? Us girls who go through it every day don’t always have the rehabilitation resources that she did. We don’t get praised for coming out about our struggles, we get made fun of. Where are our metals and badges of honor?
But, I’m going to step off my soap box and lol yes Wilmer is the biggest creep I’ve EVER seen. She’s never come forward about her drug addiction, she’s never really acknowledged it, but yeah. I agree with you 100%.
I think in regards to Raven and Hilary is more of the nostalgia where the girls on the Disney shows actually looked like typical teenage girls with varying sizes and weren’t all super skinny. While yes, Raven has lost weight and has said she feels much better for it, which is awesome for her, I remember once upon a time when Hilary shrunk to the size of a skeleton just as her run on Disney ended. Now it seems most of the actresses on Disney are very very skinny and the second they don’t fit that mold, the pressure is on to get back into that mold.
100% with your post Guesty. I don’t believe that she’s “turned her life around” like she’s pretending post rehab. She was big into drugs before and the fact she’s still skeeving around with Wilmer makes me think she still is.
I flove her. I think she’s great. She’s real and honest; at least as real and honest as you can get in Hollyhell.
I never really followed her much because by the time she was on Disney I had pretty much gotten over their crappiness. But I heard that song Fix A Heart on her new album and it was so raw and honest that I broke down because I totally can relate to that song!
She’s a great singer and I wish her well.
Did Demi fart in the last picture because the girl on left behind her looks like she’s smelling something…..
I think she is a young girl finding herself and healing.
Eating disorders are not a joke. My friend lost her twin to anorexia and it was horrifying to witness. She was 56 pounds on her deathbed. I can’t even articulate how devastating it is to everyone involved.
Good for her for standing up and callling them out.
LOVE her standing up for this. go demi
I struggled with an eating disorder for years. Heck, even in ‘recovery’ it’s still a struggle. Props to Demi, and I’m thrilled Disney took notice and pulled not only the episode she called them out on, but another episode as well. I’m beaming.
It’s little off topic I guess but I wish this Demi Lovato would stop building her non-career around rehab. Because I swear the only time we hear or read about her is when she talks about her rehab and how she was there. I never saw anyone who would exploit rehab so much. Even Lohan.
Dear Demi Lovato. You went to rehab. Good for you. But please stop doing your PR on this delicate subject. Because here we are again. Demi Lovato gets free press talking about rehab. I don’t even remember how Demi Lovato looks. I don’t know what she does for living. I don’t know her music or movies or whatever she does. But I know that Demi Lovato went to rehab some time ago and now she blabs to press about it every day.
She exploits it waaaaayy to much. And it is like that. I don’t care about her. I skip her articles. But still they scream to my face every other week from titles on sites. And it’s never about her music or other things about her. It’s either she (again) talks about her rehab or it’s article related to her time in rehab. I never knew her before she went to rehab. She was just another one of those Disney C-listers.
But Miley Syrus build her career around music and herself. Selena Gomes build it around her relationship with Bieber and her superhit Love You Like a Love Song. And Demi Lovato… Well she build her career around her brief rehab stint. I don’t think many people even know her in face. But they know “Demi Lovato = rehab”. Because it is in their face every week.
Soooo many stars went to rehab. They went, cured and let it go. They never even mention it. I never saw any other celebrity (except Lohan) who would talk and mention it in every interview-article for months-years. Isn’t it like almost a year past since she went to rehab? And she still talks about it every time like it happened last week.
Hi Shy. I get what you are trying to say. Please understand there are quite a few of us out here who know exactly who Demi Lovato is because we monitor what our children watch on t.v. Demi is pretty talented. She was the lead on on “So Random!” and “Sonny With a Chance” along with starring in “Camp Rock” and “Princess Protection Program” with Selena Gomez. She also has a few albums out there. So really, she built up her career as an actress and singer through Disney, not rehab.
By the way, Selena Gomez was pretty well known in the tween arena before she started dating Bieber through movies and t.v. shows too. She also had an album out before which also had some good music on it. I’ll be sad when she stops making good music my kids can listen to.
If you bothered to read the article, it is about her calling Disney out for slyly promoting eating disorders NOT about her rehab stint. She didn’t mention rehab at all.
Eating disorders kill people – do you have any idea how hard it is to deal with an eating disorder and recover when the issue is with something humans must have to survive? Food isn’t something you can just stay away from like blow. It is fully commendable for her to stand up to the machine that made her damn near a household name.
I would much rather Demi be open about her experience with rehab for an eating disorder than shove it under the table. Kids need to know it is ok to be healthy not just skinny.
“And is it just me or are the actress’ getting…”
What a shame schools these days are no longer teaching that pluralizing a word does not occur by adding an apostrophe.
you dont even know her how can you say that