Demi Lovato insinuates in her docuseries that a Disney Channel co-star raped her - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 03-17-2021, 05:16 AM

https://www.thedailybeast.com/demi-l...got-in-trouble

In her YouTube docuseries Dancing With the Devil, Lovato said she hooked up with someone she worked with on Disney's Camp Rock and he didn't listen to her when she said "no." Lovato says that's how, without naming the person, she says she lost her virginity. “You know what? F*** it,” she says. “I’m just going to say it. My #MeToo story is me telling somebody that someone did this to me and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in. But I’ve just kept it quiet because I’ve always had something to say. I don’t know. I’m tired of opening my mouth. So here’s the tea.”

Disney is known for its purity culture: Will Demi Lovato's rape allegation in her new docuseries change that?

“I lost my virginity in a rape," Lovato says in her new YouTube documentary, Dancing with the Devil, revealing that a fellow actor sexual assaulted her when she was 15 and starring on a Disney Channel show, most likely Camp Rock. Lovato said she told an adult, but nothing happened, and the two had to keep working together. “My #MeToo story,” Lovato says in the documentary, “is me telling somebody that somebody did this to me, and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in.” As Jo Livingstone notes, Lovato's documentary may put a dent in Disney's purity culture. Livingstone adds: "The trauma of her assault was compounded by confusion, Lovato says, stemming from Disney’s insistence that its child actors maintain an image of sexual purity. She was a 'little child star role model who has a promise ring,' she says, one of 'that Disney crowd who publicly said they were waiting until marriage.' The image she was expected to maintain publicly was so at odds with her private experience that she couldn’t identify the encounter as rape until much later. We have known at least since Shirley Temple’s heyday that working in entertainment as a child can be psychologically damaging. Disney appears to have fostered a particularly mind-warping kind of gendered culture, coupling the mandatory appearance of sexual purity with an unsafe working environment. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were both asked whether they were virgins at press conferences, while other former Disney child stars, including Bella Thorne and Jordan Pruitt, have gone public with stories of being sexually abused during their time at the company. Was Lovato’s case a one-off, or part of a systemic problem? Sexual abuse will always be an issue for a company that courts children, either as performers or members of an audience. It seems odd that Disney—a company that trades in paid images of children and has devoted a peculiar amount of energy to branding its stars as virginal—has never taken any kind of formal responsibility for apparently failing to safeguard people like Lovato from sexual abuse. Lovato is now swinging hard at Disney in the court of public opinion. She could probably only have done it now: Dancing With the Devil is a portrait of a talented addict struggling with the kind of trauma-driven behaviors that the media has only very recently adapted to sympathizing with instead of vilifying. Her revelations come at the peak of a culture change in the way we talk about female celebrities previously shamed by the media."

TMC · 03-21-2024, 06:14 AM

Here's a timeline of the projects that Demi Lovato worked on in 2007-2009 to help us see what was going on in her work life at that time.

As The Bell Rings (could not find production dates but it was filmed in Austin, TX and premiered on August 26, 2007, so its safe to assume she was 14 during filming)
Camp Rock (January-March 2008)
Princess Protection Program (March 14, 2008-April 18, 2008)
Burning Up Tour (July 4, 2008-December 20, 2008, March 22, 2009)
Sonny With A Chance (could not find production dates but there's a casting call listing online that's dated September 3rd, 2009, which is two months before Demi got back from tour)
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (September 2009-October 2009)
Jonas Brothers: Live In Concert/Camp Rock 2 Press Tour (August 7, 2010-November 13 2010)

The information given to us by Demi herself in her documentary:

She was 15 when it happened, which means it happened between Aug 2007-Jul 2008.
A month after the SA she reached out to her abuser to hang out again and sort of redo the situation to give herself a feeling of control over the situation and which she ultimately regrets.
She had to see this person all the time after the two incidents. Which could mean a couple things: That they had to work on other projects together or they had to do press together.
When she tried to tell someone about the rape and nothing was done about it. She says and I quote, "My #metoo story is me telling somebody that they did this to me and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in."

03-17-2021, 05:16 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 124,493	Demi Lovato insinuates in her docuseries that a Disney Channel co-star raped her https://www.thedailybeast.com/demi-l...got-in-trouble In her YouTube docuseries Dancing With the Devil, Lovato said she hooked up with someone she worked with on Disney's Camp Rock and he didn't listen to her when she said "no." Lovato says that's how, without naming the person, she says she lost her virginity. “You know what? F* it,” she says. “I’m just going to say it. My #MeToo story is me telling somebody that someone did this to me and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in. But I’ve just kept it quiet because I’ve always had something to say. I don’t know. I’m tired of opening my mouth. So here’s the tea.” Disney is known for its purity culture: Will Demi Lovato's rape allegation in her new docuseries change that?** “I lost my virginity in a rape," Lovato says in her new YouTube documentary, Dancing with the Devil, revealing that a fellow actor sexual assaulted her when she was 15 and starring on a Disney Channel show, most likely Camp Rock. Lovato said she told an adult, but nothing happened, and the two had to keep working together. “My #MeToo story,” Lovato says in the documentary, “is me telling somebody that somebody did this to me, and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in.” As Jo Livingstone notes, Lovato's documentary may put a dent in Disney's purity culture. Livingstone adds: "The trauma of her assault was compounded by confusion, Lovato says, stemming from Disney’s insistence that its child actors maintain an image of sexual purity. She was a 'little child star role model who has a promise ring,' she says, one of 'that Disney crowd who publicly said they were waiting until marriage.' The image she was expected to maintain publicly was so at odds with her private experience that she couldn’t identify the encounter as rape until much later. We have known at least since Shirley Temple’s heyday that working in entertainment as a child can be psychologically damaging. Disney appears to have fostered a particularly mind-warping kind of gendered culture, coupling the mandatory appearance of sexual purity with an unsafe working environment. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were both asked whether they were virgins at press conferences, while other former Disney child stars, including Bella Thorne and Jordan Pruitt, have gone public with stories of being sexually abused during their time at the company. Was Lovato’s case a one-off, or part of a systemic problem? Sexual abuse will always be an issue for a company that courts children, either as performers or members of an audience. It seems odd that Disney—a company that trades in paid images of children and has devoted a peculiar amount of energy to branding its stars as virginal—has never taken any kind of formal responsibility for apparently failing to safeguard people like Lovato from sexual abuse. Lovato is now swinging hard at Disney in the court of public opinion. She could probably only have done it now: Dancing With the Devil is a portrait of a talented addict struggling with the kind of trauma-driven behaviors that the media has only very recently adapted to sympathizing with instead of vilifying. Her revelations come at the peak of a culture change in the way we talk about female celebrities previously shamed by the media."
	Last edited by TMC; 03-24-2021 at 10:10 PM.

03-21-2024, 06:14 AM	#2
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 124,493	Here's a timeline of the projects that Demi Lovato worked on in 2007-2009 to help us see what was going on in her work life at that time. As The Bell Rings (could not find production dates but it was filmed in Austin, TX and premiered on August 26, 2007, so its safe to assume she was 14 during filming) Camp Rock (January-March 2008) Princess Protection Program (March 14, 2008-April 18, 2008) Burning Up Tour (July 4, 2008-December 20, 2008, March 22, 2009) Sonny With A Chance (could not find production dates but there's a casting call listing online that's dated September 3rd, 2009, which is two months before Demi got back from tour) Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (September 2009-October 2009) Jonas Brothers: Live In Concert/Camp Rock 2 Press Tour (August 7, 2010-November 13 2010) The information given to us by Demi herself in her documentary: She was 15 when it happened, which means it happened between Aug 2007-Jul 2008. A month after the SA she reached out to her abuser to hang out again and sort of redo the situation to give herself a feeling of control over the situation and which she ultimately regrets. She had to see this person all the time after the two incidents. Which could mean a couple things: That they had to work on other projects together or they had to do press together. When she tried to tell someone about the rape and nothing was done about it. She says and I quote, "My #metoo story is me telling somebody that they did this to me and they never got in trouble for it. They never got taken out of the movie they were in."