Disney Removes Eating Disorder Joke from "Shake It Up" after Demi Lovato Complains

[JamesG]

Demi Lovato Slams Disney For Eating Disorder Joke on "Shake It Up"
12/23/11


Demi Lovato is not impressed with Disney, and she's letting them know it. The singer and former star of "Sonny With A Chance" is furious over a joke about eating disorders on Disney Channel's "Shake It Up".

Lovato entered treatment for eating disorders and cutting in October 2010, and she isn't laughing at a character who quipped, "I could just eat you up, well if I ate."



On Friday night the 19-year-old launched into a series of tweets expressing her distaste at the 'joke', writing:

"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 joke about that very disease... #nice."



Lovato added, "And is it just me or are the actress' [on Disney Channel] getting THINNER AND THINNER.... I miss the days of RAVEN and LIZZIE MCGUIRE," referencing actresses Raven Symone and Hilary Duff -- who have both dealt with public pressure to lose weight.



Lovato finished up her rant to Disney with a straightforward tweet, telling her former employer:

"Dear Disney Channel, EATING DISORDERS ARE NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT."











UPDATE: As it turns out Disney was listening and heard Demi Lovato's message loud and clear.

Just hours after Demi tweeted about the offending joke on "Shake It Up", Disney's official public relations account for the Disney Channel tweeted at her:

"@ddlovato - we hear you & are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible & reevaluating them - It's NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders!"



Because of Lovato's complaint, Disney is pulling the "Shake It Up" episode titled "Party It Up" and an episode of another show called "So Random!", after a fan pointed out that it also made light of the issue and the singer retweeted it.

Demi appears to be satisfied with the company's quick response, tweeting: "@DisneyChannelPR thank you."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/23/demi-lovato-slams-disney-for-eating-disorder-joke-on-shake-it-up_n_1168436.html?ref=tv&ir=TV

[Schmoopie]

Wow, that is a tacky thing to say about eating disorders. I like "Shake it Up" but that's pretty over the top. No wonder she was ticked off.

[TMC]

Nobody is forcing Demi Lovato to watch Disney Channel! Besides, Disney as perhaps done things in the past, way worse than alleged jokes about eating disorders. Bluntly speaking, she for all intents and purposes, rather abruptly quits her sitcom (and pretty much pins most of the blame on Disney for pushing her too hard), which leads to Disney being forced to reformat the show into the "show within a show"! It pisses me off that she has to get on her high horse and tell a media company that she doesn't even *beep* work for anymore (and could easily survive without her; it's like like the way Nickelodeon has pinned themselves into a corner by heavily so much on Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice) what to do!

Why doesn't Demi Lovato (since she's so concerned about being "politically correct") complain about the Paisley character on A.N.T. Farm which does little else but reinforce the "blonde girls are dumb" stereotype (and the fat kid on that show, naturally always being shown eating). Or also, the Lexi character being a blonde cheerleader and the "Queen B" of the school, much naturally be the resident "Libby" of the show. Or how about on the show Jessie, the Indian kid speaking with a heavy accent (a la Apu on The Simpsons or Raj on The Big Bang Theory) even though the actor in real life doesn't speak like that.

My point is that there are many more things in Disney's TV shows that come across (on face value) as offensive or un-PC that Demi has overlooked. As a matter of fact, from what I saw on that So Random skit, they were making fun of the image of supermodels being thin. Demi Lovato pretty much if you ask me, took certain things too personally and way out of context purely because she still has a bone to pick with her former employers. She just comes across as way too entitled and bitter if you ask me. Calling out Disney and nitpicking scripts on some of their shows isn't exactly the most constructive idea if you ask me.

It's utterly ridiculous how Demi seems to have a sense of personal betrayal at what the writers/producers/actors whatever did on those particular shows on Disney Channel. My father recently passed away from a heart attack. Therefore should I (in Demi's perspective) theoretically get immediately upset or offended everytime that a TV show or movie jokes about people having heart attacks. For example, I saw an episode of Tim Allen's new show, Last Man Standing, where his wife played by Nancy Travis, fakes a heart attack to get out of a boring staff meeting. Demi Lovato is not the only person on this planet who has problems, yet she has recently had to make her problems I suppose, "define" her personality or career.

[retrofan05]

Nobody is forcing Demi Lovato to watch Disney Channel! Besides, Disney as perhaps done things in the past, way worse than alleged jokes about eating disorders. Bluntly speaking, she for all intents and purposes, rather abruptly quits her sitcom (and pretty much pins most of the blame on Disney for pushing her too hard), which leads to Disney being forced to reformat the show into the "show within a show"! It pisses me off that she has to get on her high horse and tell a media company that she doesn't even *beep* work for anymore (and could easily survive without her; it's like like the way Nickelodeon has pinned themselves into a corner by heavily so much on Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice) what to do!

Why doesn't Demi Lovato (since she's so concerned about being "politically correct") complain about the Paisley character on A.N.T. Farm which does little else but reinforce the "blonde girls are dumb" stereotype (and the fat kid on that show, naturally always being shown eating). Or also, the Lexi character being a blonde cheerleader and the "Queen B" of the school, much naturally be the resident "Libby" of the show. Or how about on the show Jessie, the Indian kid speaking with a heavy accent (a la Apu on The Simpsons or Raj on The Big Bang Theory) even though the actor in real life doesn't speak like that.

My point is that there are many more things in Disney's TV shows that come across (on face value) as offensive or un-PC that Demi has overlooked. As a matter of fact, from what I saw on that So Random skit, they were making fun of the image of supermodels being thin. Demi Lovato pretty much if you ask me, took certain things too personally and way out of context purely because she still has a bone to pick with her former employers. She just comes across as way too entitled and bitter if you ask me. Calling out Disney and nitpicking scripts on some of their shows isn't exactly the most constructive idea if you ask me.

It's utterly ridiculous how Demi seems to have a sense of personal betrayal at what the writers/producers/actors whatever did on those particular shows on Disney Channel. My father recently passed away from a heart attack. Therefore should I (in Demi's perspective) theoretically get immediately upset or offended everytime that a TV show or movie jokes about people having heart attacks. For example, I saw an episode of Tim Allen's new show, Last Man Standing, where his wife played by Nancy Travis, fakes a heart attack to get out of a boring staff meeting. Demi Lovato is not the only person on this planet who has problems, yet she has recently had to make her problems I suppose, "define" her personality or career.

With all do respect, none of us have the right to judge Demi for being upset over this joke. We don't know what she was dealing with personally, nor do we fully understand the role Disney played in her situation. Although, from what I have seen in interviews, Demi did indeed have a very painful struggle while filming Sonny with a Chance and Disney was very unsympathetic in her time of need. But like I said, none of us will ever know the whole story and because of that, making Demi out to be some kind of whiny little brat is pretty pretentious. In addition, whether or not the joke was related to her on a personal level isn't the issue. The point is, an eating disorder should never be joked about; especially on a network that caters to young children and teens.

[TMC]

With all do respect, none of us have the right to judge Demi for being upset over this joke. We don't know what she was dealing with personally, nor do we fully understand the role Disney played in her situation. Although, from what I have seen in interviews, Demi did indeed have a very painful struggle while filming Sonny with a Chance and Disney was very unsympathetic in her time of need. But like I said, none of us will ever know the whole story and because of that, making Demi out to be some kind of whiny little brat is pretty pretentious. In addition, whether or not the joke was related to her on a personal level isn't the issue. The point is, an eating disorder should never be joked about; especially on a network that caters to young children and teens.

And yet at the same token, how come Demi hasn't praised Disney for their "Magic for Healthy Living" campaign? And what difference does it make that Disney is a network that caters towards young children/teens? Are you saying that it would be less offensive it were were on say a more adult platform like say prime time on a broadcast TV network like ABC? Nobody to the best of my knowledged, complained (children, parents, whatever) until it heart poor little Ms. Lovato's feelings. Again, nobody is forcing you to watch these particular shows/episodes in the first place. It seemed like Disney panicked because they didn't want to burn any bridges to with their previous stars. I would respect them much more if they defended the producers/writers right to creative freedom.

Like I said, there are much more things to come out of Disney's TV shows to complain or nitpick about. As I said before, the show A.N.T. Farm has a character named Angus, who's overweight and is often shown as a persistent eater. Isn't that sort of thing by default, promoting an unhealthy image all for the sake of comedy. But of course, she takes a line out of context (in my estimation) and blow it way out of proportion by playing the "Moral Police".

[D-Dey]

Like I said, there are much more things to come out of Disney's TV shows to complain or nitpick about. As I said before, the show A.N.T. Farm has a character named Angus, who's overweight and is often shown as a persistent eater. Isn't that sort of thing by default, promoting an unhealthy image all for the sake of comedy.

You could say the same for Bertram the butler in Jessie, and Chef Paolo in The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, which by the way is widely believed (albeit incorrectly) to have banned the episode "Smart and Smarter," because it dealt with dyslexia, but not the Shake It Up episode "Add It Up."