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Demi Lovato may no longer be a star on the Disney Channel, but she still watches it -- and last week, she wasn't too happy with what she saw. The former Sonny with a Chance actress, who has been candid about her battle with eating disorders, blasted the cable network for a joke about anorexia on the sitcom Shake It Up.
During the offending episode, an actress playing an obnoxious supermodel tells the two lead actresses (played by teen actresses Zendaya Coleman, 15, and Bella Thorne, 14) that "I could just eat you up. Well, if I ate." Watch the clip below.
"What are we promoting here? #notfunnyATALL," Lovato tweeted on Friday.
The 19-year-old singer-actress, who left her Disney gig behind after entering rehab in fall 2010, had a few more choice words for Shake It Up's humor.
"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," she wrote. "And is it just me or are the actress' getting THINNER AND THINNER.... I miss the days of RAVEN, and LIZZIE MCGUIRE."
To their credit, the Disney Channel responded to Lovato's complaints quickly -- and seriously.
"We hear you & are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible & reevaluating them," the Disney Channel PR department tweeted at Lovato that same day. "It’s NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders!"
Lovato tweeted a "thank you" in response on Christmas Eve, then added some clarification of her earlier remarks about That's So Raven and Lizzie McGuire.
"Just clearing things up, I have nothing against any specific actress/actor or tv show.. Nor do I think there's anything wrong with girls who aren't curvy, I just was stating a fact that there needs to be more variety on television so young girls growing up don't feel pressured to look one specific way. Tall, thin, curvy, short, whatever you are, you are beautiful. :)," Lovato tweeted to her fans.
Earlier this month, Lovato returned to her former treatment center as a motivational speaker, and urged her fans to "please say a prayer for all of those struggling with eating disorders, self harm, mood disorders and substance abuse." She has talked openly in the past year about her own struggles with anorexia and bulimia, as well as cutting.
