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The Independent
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Alyson Stoner opens up about relationship with Demi Lovato in new memoir
Alyson Stoner has revealed details about their challenging working relationship with Demi Lovato during the Camp Rock films in their new memoir, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything. Stoner claimed they felt suffocated by Lovato's influence and PR team, and faced severe criticism and online death threats from Lovato's fanbase. They described Lovato's unpredictable mood swings and substance abuse issues, stating the Camp Rock cast often had to accommodate her behavior. Stoner also alleged that media interviews frequently centered on Lovato, forcing them to conceal their true feelings and experiences. The two actors recently reconnected for Lovato's 2024 documentary Child Star, where Lovato apologized for her past conduct, leading to a sense of relief and understanding for Stoner.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Disney Channel star says they felt ‘suffocated' under weight of Demi Lovato's ‘power'
Former Disney Channel star Alyson Stoner made a candid confession about working with Demi Lovato in her new memoir, Semi-Well-Adjust Despite Literally Everything. The 32-year-old singer and actor worked with Lovato in Disney Channel's two Camp Rock movies (released in 2008 and 2010). Stoner confessed that during that time in the spotlight, they faced immense criticism from the 'Heart Attack' singer's fans. 'For several years, I felt suffocated under the weight of Demi's power and terrified of her PR team,' Stoner, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, writes in the memoir, according to E! News. 'The extreme remarks from her fanbase, and the way mass media gave a fabricated identity a life of its own.' Stoner said that the cast of Camp Rock witnessed their co-star's experience with substance abuse, which Lovato has spoken openly about, and her behavior because of it. 'Her moods swung unpredictably from euphoric to furious to dejected,' Stoner continued. 'The hardness in her eyes and bite to her speech that she formerly used to jokingly imitate Regina George from Mean Girls cemented as a fixed state.' The Independent has contacted Lovato's representatives for comment. The Phineas & Ferb star said that when the cast of Camp Rock joined the Jonas Brothers on their tour in 2010, they prepared for Lovato to behave a certain way. 'To get through the tour, the entire crew bent the knee, accepting that at any moment we could be open targets for her to externalize her pain,' she continued. 'At sixteen, being forced to submit to her power plays was confusing. She verbally lashed out behind the curtain, and then we'd walk onstage for a sound check, meet-and-greet and publicly kiss her crown.' Stoner also claimed that they not only received online death threats from Lovato's fanbase, but 'media outlets centered [Lovato] as a main topic in [Stoner's] interviews.' 'And I answered each question with a smile while feeling sick from withholding secrets,' they wrote. 'I felt so pathetic about struggling to move on, especially when I knew I wasn't even a passing thought on her mind anymore.' They said that after 14 years of not speaking to Lovato, they appeared in her 2024 documentary Child Star, where the two actors discussed the challenges of being a child performer. 'Demi apologized, and I didn't realize that my teen self had been waiting on the doorstop to hear her say sorry ever since that tumultuous time,' they wrote about the conversation in the documentary. 'I had the chance to more fully understand and empathize with her excruciating experiences.' In Child Star, Stoner recalled how they felt distant from Lovato while filming the second Camp Rock film. 'I remember that it felt so hard to access you in that way,' they explained. 'Like we had lost that thread of trust, we had lost that closeness. It didn't seem maybe like you wanted to be reached either at that point. So the last few years of working together felt really challenging.' Lovato acknowledged that this was a difficult time in her career and then apologized for her behaviour. 'I know that we both were going through our own stuff, but it still didn't give me an excuse to treat anyone poorly, and so I just want to genuinely, deeply apologize for any stress or any walking on eggshells, any hurt feelings,' she told Stoner.
Daily Mail
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
PETER VAN ONSELEN: This is the REAL absurdity at the heart of Antoinette Lattouf's court victory over the ABC - as public broadcaster wastes $1.1million of YOUR money on a spat with the casual radio presenter
By any measure, sacking someone with just two shifts to go on a five-day contract is absurd. Doing so in the middle of a political firestorm, triggering a courtroom circus that dragged in the broadcaster's top brass and cost over a million dollars in legal fees, defies belief. But that is what the ABC did to Antoinette Lattouf, who has 'won' her legal case against the public broadcaster. And for what? A $70,000 payout with a finding that the ABC breached the Fair Work Act. She'll declare victory and claim vindication - and Lattouf is now skirting around the fringes of media, hiring the same PR team as Abbie Chatfield and launching a 'media literacy and critique' venture. For the ABC's part, it could have simply let her finish her shifts, distanced itself from her views in the meantime and never hired her again. All without the consequences we've now seen play out. Or it could have never hired her in the first place for that five-day contract and none of this would have happened. For a public broadcaster, clinging to an annual budget of over one billion dollars of taxpayers' money, this was bureaucratic buffoonery of the highest order. Let's be clear: this isn't about whether Lattouf should have kept her gig. It's not about free speech, race, or even social media boundaries for journalists, although all those themes were trotted out during the saga. It's about proportionality, common sense and the sort of managerial judgement you'd hope for from an adult organisation. She had two shifts left. Two! What was to be gained by cutting her mid-week and mid-contract? Even if you thought Lattouf's posts were tone-deaf, inappropriate or politically fraught, surely the smarter play was to let her quietly finish the week and then, behind closed doors, make sure she was never invited back again. That's how any competent employer deals with a short-term casual arrangement. Instead, the ABC turned a temporary contract into a federal case, literally. Now it's facing the consequences. The court found the ABC breached the Fair Work Act by terminating her, in part, over her political views on the Israel-Gaza conflict. The claim that she was discriminated against based on her race didn't hold up -- those allegations were rejected outright. But the finding on political opinion was enough to trigger a payout. And let's not forget, this all comes after $1.1 million of public money was ultimately wasted on external legal fees. Over a fill-in radio host, no less. Even Lattouf, for all her victory-lap commentary to come, must wonder whether the whole thing was worth it. No matter the outcome, she's now a lightning rod in media circles, a name entangled with internal ABC politics and Middle Eastern geopolitics. Perhaps she will be happy with that - who knows. But the real embarrassment belongs to the ABC. It overreacted and got caught trying to manage its image, rather than manage its staff, and now gets to wear the badge of 'Fair Work violator'. It gets worse when you see the internal chatter dragged into the daylight. Former chair Ita Buttrose was joking in emails about Lattouf calling in sick to avoid embarrassment. The managing director was texting about an 'Antoinette problem'. Not exactly the kind of cool-headed leadership one expects in a crisis. The ABC seemed more interested in damage control than employment law compliance, that's for sure. At the centre of the case was a Human Rights Watch post Lattouf shared accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. The fact is, it didn't happen on air. There was no live rant, no breach of ABC editorial guidelines in the studio. The offending posts were external and the ABC's own evidence about whether she'd been clearly told not to post was at best a murky mess of suggestions, warnings and 'we'd rather you didn't do it' nudges. In the end, the ABC was hoisted by its own indecision. If they'd simply handled the matter with some quiet professionalism, finishing her contract, documenting concerns and moving on, they wouldn't be writing a cheque with your money after today's decision. Instead, they manufactured a high-profile debacle over a contract that would've expired naturally within 48 hours.
The Sun
09-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Meghan's theme park snap proves she is a cosplay Diana… the contrast between the two couldn't be more different
PRINCESS Diana was the world's first influencer. What she wore, women followed (only last year one of her dresses sold at auction for £900,000), what she championed, we believed, and how she exercised — the gym — made it acceptable for non-sportswomen to lift weights. 7 7 7 Now, with a newly bolstered PR team behind her, Meghan Markle is attempting to follow in her late mother-in-law's size 7s. Last week Meg's ruthless Diana cosplay came to a head. The privacy-loving star, who bravely fled to sun-kissed California to escape pubic scrutiny, posted a series of Instagram posts, documenting her private family's trip to secluded Disneyland for daughter Lilibet's fourth birthday. One photo recreated one of Diana's most famous, and endearing, pics — that of her getting soaked on Thorpe Park's Log Flume in the Nineties It is just the latest in what appears to be a concerted, some might say cynical, Diana-inspired publicity drive. Facing an uphill battle in her bid to become the People's (excommunicated) Princess, over the past few months Meghan has gone into overdrive with her comms team. Indeed, she now has enough sycophantic staff to field a football team. Last month, Forbes reported the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had added an entire PR agency, Method Communications, to their roster, and appointed a new director of comms. It comes weeks after grandiose Meghan appointed a chief of staff, as if she were operating out of the White House, not Disney. She also has spokespeople based in both London and LA. It is hardly a coincidence, then, that her latest push for global impact has seen her mirroring the late, great Princess Di. (A woman who, TBF, I believe would have adored Meghan.) Meghan Markle Expands As Ever: From Lifestyle Brand to Hospitality Empire Meg has long worn her priceless Cartier Tank watch — a gift from Harry — but in February the cosplaying really began. First came a near-identical purple Midwestern college sweatshirt, and then more recently the feverish Insta activity. Last week her widely-debated, labour-inducing hospital twerk alongside hoody-wearing Harry could be compared to ballet-loving Diana's infamous 1985 dance with Wayne Sleep. Just as Diana's twirls made global headlines — infuriating then husband Charles at the same time — so Meghan's slut-dropping divided royal fans. Unquestionably the American actress, who appears to have put her philanthropic efforts on the back burner, is now an influencer. She reportedly plans to bring out a nice rose soon. Meghan's Oprah was Diana's Martin Bashir — except the latter was tricked into going on national television to tell all. Meghan hopped on that garden wicker chair quicker than you can say 'Mickey Mouse'. Single-handedly reversed public opinion While Diana certainly courted the Press at times, she also, certainly in the case of her 1997 landmine walk, put herself on the front line to do good. She shook the hands of Aids patients at a time when people were cruelly demonising those with HIV, and single-handedly reversed public opinion. In contrast, Meghan and Harry preach about climate change and then hop on a pal's private jet. Meghan bemoans socio-economic inequality while living in a 16-bathroomed Montecito mansion, and wearing Oscar de la Renta. She now even gets a percentage of profits made from the wares she flogged. The other problem is Meghan, who has now become a mononym — putting herself in the same category as, say Madonna, Adele and Beyonce — has 3.7million Instagram followers. More supporters Madonna, Adele and Beyonce have 20million, 58million and 311million followers respectively. Vicky Pattison (5.4million), Ekin Su Culculoglu (4.2million) and Maura Higgins (4.1million) all have more supporters than Suits' most famous export. In the words of one royalist on X: 'You wanted the crown without the class. You wanted the fame without the responsibility. 'Don't cry for respect when you're out here pimping your title & twerking for clicks like a fame-hungry influencer with delusions of grandeur. 'Now all that's left is a royal mess in heels, still trying to play duchess while behaving like an influencer on a bachelorette trip.' Quite. A PETITION has started to remove a madman/woman from TikTok. A trans woman, who now goes by the name of Lily Tino, is infamous for her videos in which she tried to get misgendered in public in order to shame restaurant staff. Now she has started taking selfies in women's bathrooms, rating them out of ten. When 99.9 per cent of trans people are kind, normal and decent, and just trying to live quiet lives, it's attention-seeking idiots like this who let down their community. BUTTER BETTER BUTTER should sue its old PR company. For years it's been maligned as some sort of short-cut to obesity, and a one-way street to Heart Attack City. Margarines like Utterly Butterly and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter reigned supreme in the Nineties while olive oil has been the fat du jour for the past 20 years. Poor ol' butter has been demonised. Now, finally, a US study shows a teaspoon a day reduces your chances of getting both heart disease and type 2 diabetes. TBF, TikTokkers – and those on the carnivore or animal diets – have been waxing lyrical about the benefits for years. There's even a whole raft of extreme influencers who eat a tub of butter daily, documenting their 'journeys'. Go check one out if you want to feel mildly sick. A GOOD CALL ON PHONES IN last week's column I bemoaned my terrible screen time, and warned that mobile phone addiction would be the biggest epidemic to hit Generations Z and Alpha unless more action is taken now to protect young people. Loads of you wrote in, sharing your own concerns. Now, a coalition of 21 schools, nurseries and colleges in London has written to families, urging parents to reduce their own – and their kids' – screen times. The letter, sent to the families of more than 11,000 children, is an unprecedented intervention – but a necessary one. Now the Government must step up, too. BADDIE TOM IS GOODIE FINALLY, some common sense from a Harry Potter former child star. Eminently likeable Tom Felton, who played baddie Draco Malfoy, has refused to slam JK Rowling. 7 Refusing to bite the hand that fed him – making him a millionaire global movie star in the process – he insisted her views on gender identity did not 'affect' him. 'The only thing I always remind myself is that I've been lucky enough to travel the world,' he told Variety. 'Here I am in New York, and I have not seen anything bring the world together more than Potter, and she's responsible for that. So I'm incredibly grateful.' Take note, kids. LEFT IN FIX BY SCAM YOU never think it's going to happen to you, until it happens to you. Yes, dear reader, watching countless Netflix documentaries and ITV dramas about silly men and women getting taken for a ride I appear to have been taken for a ride. 7 A couple of weeks ago my key got jammed in my lock and I googled a locksmith to come out and fix it. He arrived in an unmarked car, and proceeded to as if 'I rented or owned' and 'lived alone', and then told me that, unfortunately, as bad luck would have it, I had an exceptionally complicated lock. Then, £1,117 later, the f***er left. I had a little cry. The company, for those interested, was called Masterit. A quick Google search would have told me they have unanimously terrible reviews online, and have apparently exploited countless other poor/stupid souls. Obviously they won't now respond to emails or calls, and my insurance company will only pay out £200. I feel like a fool. HONESTLY, I PREFERRED THE ORIGINAL 7 7
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
What IS going on with Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwa? Pair's 'relationship' is branded a 'PR stunt' as they continue to baffle fans with excessive PDA and grand gestures while refusing to comment on romance
For centuries, humans have been trying to learn the answer to some of the world's unanswered questions: who built Stonehenge? Do aliens exist? What is the meaning of life? Now, there is another question that has been on everybody's lips and causing much contention online - what is really going on with Chris Hughes and JoJo Siwa? Since meeting in the Celebrity Big Brother house last month, the pair have been inseparable, constantly posting about one another on social media and sharing what look like loved-up snaps. Yet for a pair who seem incapable of talking about much else than each other - there is one topic they won't discuss - whether their relationship is platonic or romantic. Even diehard fans of the pair have been left scratching their heads at the duo's confusing dynamic. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. JoJo's ex Kath Ebbs - who was dumped by the dancer moments after she left the Big Brother house - was one of the first to accuse JoJo of a publicity stunt. Speaking to Betches about their breakup, Kath - who uses they/them pronouns - mused: 'I feel a bit like I've been this pawn that's been moved around in this story by Big Brother, by JoJo, by her PR team, by the tabloids. 'And I feel really beaten around by that because it's just not something I asked for. And I think at the end of the day, the boring headline is: I'm just heartbroken, and I've just gone through a really messy breakup that I didn't see coming, and I'm in shock, and I'm picking up the pieces of my love life and of my life in that.' Chris' ex Olivia Attwood, whom he dated for eight months after meeting on Love Island in 2017, also voiced her doubts. A fan posted on TikTok: 'I'm sorry, I need to know what's Olivia Attwood's reaction to this Chris and JoJo thing'. To which Olivia gave a cutting one-liner reply: 'She's really famous'. Others have taken to social media to voice their doubts. Posts on X/Twitter include: 'I can't believe people are genuinely believing the jojo and Chris thing as if it isn't blatantly a pr stunt PLEASEEEE GET REALLLL'; 'surely jojo and chris is a pr stunt.. right?'; 'Another PR stunt? JoJo and Chris are just chasing clout after her XOMG Pop mess' 'can i be honest w u guys i think the chris hughes and jojo siwa thing is fake'; 'Surely this Chris and Jojo stuff is a publicity stunt. She's got a name in the UK now he's breaking America'; 'SURELY nobody is buying this Jojo Siwa and Chris Hughes publicity stunt romance? PLEASE. It's never been MORE obvious. As Olivia Attwood would say - she is really famous. Absolutely not buying what the pair of them are selling.' From the start, eyebrows were raised when JoJo, 22, exhibited flirty behaviour towards Chris, 32, stroking, caressing and even licking the Love Island star while her partner Kath watched on from the outside. The Dance Moms star, who identified as a lesbian when she entered the house, revealed in a candid chat with drag queen Danny Beard that her time on the show had made her realise her sexuality was broader, revealing she now considers herself to be 'queer'. JoJo's behaviour proved to be too much for her partner Kath to bear, with the influencer staying off social media until the show ended, when JoJo promptly came out and dumped them. It wasn't just JoJo that came under fire for her behaviour, Chris was labelled 'creepy' by viewers. The reality star was called out for making inappropriate comments to JoJo, who not only identified as a lesbian at the time but is 10 years his junior. During an uncomfortable chat on This Morning, the pair insisted they were 'platonic soulmates', with JoJo claiming her decision to dump Kath had nothing to do with her bond with Chris. Chris also hit back at critics who labelled their age-gap friendship 'inappropriate', writing on social media: 'I have friends who are 50+ too, you weirdo.' Yet in recent days, the pair seem to be closer than ever. Chris took a 12-hour flight to Mexico to support JoJo at her shows earlier this month. They later jetted to Florida to celebrate JoJo's 22nd birthday, and during their trip, the pair's romance was 'confirmed' as they were spotted kissing by a holidaymaker in the pool of their hotel. Despite this, JoJo continued to remain coy on their relationship status as she appeared on Lorraine and This Morning on Monday ahead of her London show. When asked what was going on between the pair, she said on Lorraine: 'It's so funny to me. It's so funny how straight up people are.' When pressed on whether they'd had a chat about being 'exclusive', she continued: 'Chris and I have had a lot of chats. 'We've never gone into the kitchen and the head is turning, we've never had that version.' She added: 'He's the best man.' JoJo was pressed again on This Morning, with host Alison Hammond saying: 'I'm so invested in you and Chris, I don't care what anyone says, I want to know. 'I'm loving this little relationship I think it's beautiful, but just for the record, what is your relationship status with Chris right now?' JoJo laughed and appeared shocked before she replied: 'I will say he is up there as one of my favourite people in the entire world...' Alison cheekily interjected: 'With benefits.' The American star then went on to add: 'He makes me happier than I think I've ever been, he makes me feel so full as me, he's a really good one that's been the most incredible addition to my life.' During her one-woman show, JoJo paid tribute to Chris with her cover of Bette Davies' Eyes, once again changing the lyrics to sing 'Chris Hughes' eyes.' Several fans then spotted Chris' reaction from the back of the venue, with the presenter beaming before blowing JoJo a kiss. The Dance Moms star then revealed a rhinestone-covered Sunderland football shirt, the team Chris supports, after they were promoted to the Premier League on Saturday, telling the crowd: 'This is for somebody special who's here tonight.' Following the show, the pair headed home together, with Chris sharing a snap of JoJo in bed. He also revealed he had a picture of the star on his keyring. According to insiders, JoJo has been telling those close to her 'that Chris is the one in a dramatic twist in the way she has lived her life over the last few years.' They added: 'She feels more alive than she ever has been with anyone else. With Chris, she realized that this is exactly what she has wanted for so long.'
