The following is an excerpt from DISNEY HIGH: The untold story of the rise and fall of the Disney Channel’s tween empire by Ashley Spencer © 2024, by the author and reprinted with permission from St. Martin’s Press.

Demi Lovato’s Sonny With a chance The contract went beyond the standard series terms that many former Disney Channel stars had signed and was more like something from the old Hollywood studio system. It stipulated that in addition to Demi’s commitment to Sonny with a chance (called at the time Sketchpad), she would have to send two post-Camp Rock Disney Channel Original Movies and a theatrical version Sonny film if Disney were to pursue any of these options.

Demi received $38,750 for her performance in the first film Camp Rock75,000 US dollars for Princess Protection Programat least $100,000 for the Camp Rock Continuation and $10,000 per episode for Sonnywith a 5 percent increase over the second season (the same season for which Selena was signed) wizard). If a Sonny If she wanted to make a feature film, she was bound to a minimum price of $500,000 for the film (half of what Hilary Duff would have The Lizzie McGuire Movie four years earlier).

But Demi had always preferred music to acting, and now her music career was heating up faster than Sonny“Acting is just a way to pay for singing,” said Demi Women’s clothing for everyday wear in 2009 and quickly clarified: “I mean, not anymore. Acting is now like a new challenge, a new hobby, even a new passion.”

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Demi performed concerts over the weekend and was thrilled to hear thousands of fans screaming her name. Then she returned to the set on Monday to do food jokes and slapstick stunts. “Demi’s heart was in the music. The show and the movies were not what they wanted to do,” she said. Sonny Co-star Allisyn Snyder said: “They wanted to be in the studio and go on tour and then come back here, and it was a bit like going back to school after the summer break.”

But it wasn’t just about the oppressive schedule and passion imbalance. The reality was much more painful. During her time on the Disney Channel, Demi struggled with bulimia, self-harm and substance abuse. “It was immediately clear, even when she was so young, that there were going to be some problems,” said Lee Shallat Chemel, who directed an unaired version of the series. Sonny Pilot. “Very talented, incredibly ambitious and of course a beautiful singing voice. But there were problems with her mother and her family and you could see trouble brewing.”

Soon after production begins Sonny with a chance In September 2008, Demi became ill and had to take a day off from work. Showrunner Michael Feldman said he passed her mother in the studio hallway and asked how Demi was doing.

“Oh, she’ll be back at work tomorrow,” Dianna assured him.

“That’s good, but how is she?” he asked again.

“I told her to buckle up and get back to work, so don’t worry!” Dianna replied.

“I’m not asking you whether she’s going to be here or not,” he said. “I’m asking you, parent to parent: How is your child?”

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The combination of a parent whose quality of life depends on their child’s success and a corporate system that makes sick days a potential financial loss for the child is inherently detrimental to the child’s health. But why was a teenager who was known to have a number of personal problems put in this situation in the first place and then allowed to move on without much intervention?

“It was a bad situation,” said executive producer Drew Vaupen, who Sonny after eleven episodes to create and monitor Good luck, Charlie“We all wanted to help Demi. But she was a star. There was just no way to get to her.”

No one wants to claim that they were able to stop the metaphorical bleeding, but at least some network executives are said to have been informed about Demi’s eating disorders and depression as early as 2006. It was only when a public incident occurred in late 2010 that meaningful action was taken.

“People were so concerned, but it’s a gentle way to do it. You really have to be respectful of privacy. Not a day went by when they didn’t try to do something to help.” Sonny Production manager Patty Gary Cox said: “I know there were big concerns at the network. They have been talking very hard with my executive producers about it and trying to figure out how to help her.”

Demi’s mother, Dianna, says she avoided confronting the situation for a long time. When Demi was in sixth grade, Demi’s older sister, Dianna, told her that Demi had been visiting websites that opposed anorexia and bulimia. Rather than talk to Demi about it, Dianna ignored the concerns and concluded that Demi’s weight loss was due to a growth spurt. “I even boasted that she might get more jobs because she was thinner,” Dianna wrote in her memoir. When Demi began slitting her wrists, the De La Garzas hired a life coach to help her. But later, Dianna found bloody tissues in Demi’s bed, a sign that she had started slitting again. She brushed them aside and rushed with Demi out the door to make it to the Sonny on time. “So many people – music representatives, television executives, fellow actors and management – were counting on Demi to be strong and do her job,” Dianna wrote. “Nothing was just a family affair anymore. Walking away was not an option.”

Demi has also said that she has had to privately deal with losing her virginity as a result of a rape she experienced at the age of fifteen, during an initially consensual experience that turned out to be traumatic. She told someone in a position of power about it at the time, but “they (the accused rapist) never got in trouble for it,” she said in her 2021 documentary Dance with the devil.

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Demi’s bulimia worsened. She vomited blood. Gossip blogs published photos and posts that encouraged commentators to speculate about changes in her behavior and appearance. But on Camp Rock Maria Canals-Barrera, who played Demi’s character’s mother, said she didn’t notice anything unusual. “It took me a while to believe some of the things I heard later about her problems,” Canals-Barrera said, “because I was completely clueless.”

As Demi grew older, like many teenagers, she became harder to control. She had started drinking alcohol by the age of thirteen. When she passed her high school exams at sixteen, she no longer needed a guardian on set. That same year, Demi bought her own car with the money she had earned and often went out with friends until the early hours of the morning. At seventeen, she tried cocaine for the first time.

“What do you say to your child when she’s the one paying most of the bills?” Dianna wrote in her memoir. “I couldn’t tell her I was going to take away her car if it was hers. I couldn’t take away her phone if she was the one paying for it. And even though I tried to teach her to follow our rules while she was living under our roof, she was the one paying the rent.”

Executives at the networks and labels said they weren’t aware of any serious problems until they later became public. But for a company so fond of micromanagement, there were obvious warning signs for even the most uninformed. At Miley Cyrus’s sixteenth birthday party at Disneyland in October 2008, Demi posed for photos on the red carpet with what appeared to be visible cuts on her wrists. (Her personal publicist at the time attributed the wounds to “marks” caused by tight rubber bracelets.) And when Demi was on her first headlining tour in the summer of 2009, opening act and fellow Hollywood Records member Jordan Pruitt said it was clear that “Demi was going through a really rough time” and that “made it very turbulent.” Jordan added, “Everyone was talking about her drinking and her eating disorders.”

Ferdaus Shamim/WireImage

(In 2019, Jordan filed a now-settled lawsuit claiming her former music manager sexually abused her. She also sued Disney and Hollywood Records for allowing her to work with him and be around him unsupervised while she was signed to the label in the mid- to late 2000s. When asked about the case, Jordan said, “Unfortunately, legally, I can only say ‘no comment.'”)

Disney Channel representatives were rarely present on tours. Tours were the responsibility of Disney’s touring department, its outside partners, and the artists’ personal management. And with young talent being lured in myriad directions within Disney’s divisions, the impetus for action could always be shifted to other parties. Whether it was concerns about Demi or one of the other artists, the attitude of “if there really is a problem, surely someone else is taking care of it” became easy for those in power to adopt. And even if Demi’s behavior violated the morality clause written into some of her contracts, what incentive did someone working on a project have to report her for a violation? They would lose their job if she was fired or entered treatment and the project was canceled.

“You feel a deep sense of responsibility,” said Anne Sweeney, then president of the Disney/ABC Television Group. “But that sense of responsibility really has to be shared by everyone: by the family, by the parents, by the agents, by the managers. And unfortunately that’s not always the case.”