The worst kept secret in Hollywood has finally been confirmed: Britney Spears and Demi Lovato are joining The X Factor!

Fox officially announced at the network’s upfront presentation in New York City today that the two former Disney pop princesses will be joining Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid at the judges’ table. Spears was so excited to be a part of the show, she tweeted the very first picture of all four judges together!

So what went down at the presentation? And what did Spears and Lovato have to say about joining the show?

Fox president Kevin Reilly is banking on the revamped X Factor, saying, “The Voice hit a series low at the end of the season. I’m betting on The X Factor and here’s why.” And then, of course, Cowell, Reid, Lovato and Spears, whose X Factor hiring was first reported by E! Online, took the stage, where they were greeted with big cheers.

“Well, we delivered,” Cowell said. “This has taken a year, and I am thrilled to be able to confirm the return of L.A. Reid, and the addition of Demi Lovato and the superstar Britney Spears.”

As for The X Factor newbies, who are replacing Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger? They are more than ready to fulfill their duty of finding America’s next great star. “I’m so excited about this whole experience. It’s going to be so much fun and so different than anything I’ve ever done. I’m ready to find a true star,” Spears said.

Demi added, “I’m totally stoked to be here, because of not only the opportunity to be a judge here, but the presence of you guys. It’s just an honor to be standing next to you. I’m excited to represent my generation, and I’m ready to find the winner.”

And the X Factor panel wasn’t done knocking NBC’s The Voice just yet. “This year we are seriously going to kick butt,” Cowell promised. “The Voice is going up against us; I wish them luck, but second’s not great. We are going to make this the best series we’ve ever made.”

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The X Factor will be housing two former Disney pop princesses at its judging table in season two!

Teen idol Demi Lovato has officially joined the Fox hit reality series as the fourth and final judge, sources confirm to E! News.

Lovato is set to join Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and fellow newbie judge Britney Spears when the show returns in September.

While Fox isn’t commenting on Lovato’s hiring, the 19-year-old singer is expected to make an appearance tomorrow at the network’s upfront presentation in New York City. Spears is also expected to appear at the event where a formal announcement about the duo joining the show will be made.

News of Lovato officially joining the show was first reported by TMZ.

Last week, Spears finalized her deal to join the show. As we previously reported, Spears will get $15 million for one season’s worth of work.

Before Lovato signed on, The X Factor was reportedly courting fellow former Disney star Miley Cyrus, but sources told us she was never approached with an offer.

Cowell had been on the hunt for two judges to replace Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger since he fired them in January.

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Thursday May 03, 2012 05:15 PM EDT

Demi Lovato has been busy singing across Central and South America on her recent tour, but she took some time off to explore Mexico – on horseback!

Along with some friends, the singer hopped in the saddle Wednesday to take in the country’s sights.

Lovato “had a special connection with her horse,” wrote William Beaman, who documented much of the ride on Twitter.

At one point, the star went riding in a line with two of her friends. “We ride together we die together!!” Beaman Tweeted.

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BRITNEY Spears is already trying to call the shots on X Factor America.

The pop diva will reportedly receive $15 million to join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on the judging panel of the pop star search show and has asked that teen star Demi Lovato be considered for the final position because she believes they would have great chemistry together.

“Britney is the anchor of the new judging panel and that was Simon’s most important hire. Britney is extremely hopeful that Demi Lovato will become one of the judges because she truly admires her. Britney loves how open and honest Demi has been with her fans after she went to rehab last year,” a source said.

“She thinks they have a lot in common and that they would have great chemistry on the show. Britney is being kept apprised of the status of ongoing contract talks with Lovato and it is looking like she will be joining the show! Britney is extremely excited for filming to begin, which will be in the next month.

“Britney and Demi have met a few times very casually at Hollywood industry parties but those were very brief. Demi went to one of Britney’s concerts in Anaheim in 2011 and met with her backstage. Once Demi officially signs her contract Simon will have the new judging panel over to his house for a celebration dinner. The second season of X Factor is going to be amazing.”

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Demi and Selena are BFFs for life! Find out how the girls maintain a friendship despite their busy lifestyles!
Best friends Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez love proving to their fans that it’s possible to support each other — even with their very busy schedules!

When asked if she still considers Selena one of her best friends, Demi told Popstar Argentina, “I’m very lucky to have someone like her in my life.”

Though their busy schedules make it difficult to get together frequently, the girls do their best to pencil in time to see each other. “Sel and I have been friends for a long time, but because of our schedules we don’t get to see each other very often,” Demi admitted. “Sometimes, we call each other and arrange to meet so we can catch up.”

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Demi Lovato is a believer in the paranormal, which means she was the perfect target for a ‘Punk’d’ prank involving ghosts in her recording studio. MTV has released a clip of Lovato’s episode of ‘Punk’d,’ which airs in its entirety next Thursday at 10PM ET.

“This is my episode of ‘Punk’,’ baby!,” exclaims Nick Cannon, who serves as guest host for this episode. His Lovato prank involves the help of Alex and Jack from All Time Low. Lovato and friends are working on a song in a studio when strange things begin happening.

First, she hears unexplained breathing on the playback. Then, Demi and her team freak out when they see a ghostly image of a woman sitting at the piano. Lovato told MTV, “I’m a sucker for, like, ghosts and aliens and stuff like that, so they got me pretty good.”

Lovato admitted she worried that creator Ashton Kutcher might target her if Punk’d ever came back on the air. “I always wondered if it was gonna come back around, and if it did, if I would be one of them,” she said. “For years, if someone was rude to me in the gas station, I’d be like, ‘Where’s Ashton?’”

Also receiving the ‘Punk’d’ treatment next week is singer-actress Ashley Tisdale, who is tricked into thinking the car she’s riding in ran over a pedestrian.

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By Antonia Hoyle
April 22, 2012
You wouldn’t know it from our photos, but Demi Lovato loathes having her picture taken. As professional as the 19-year-old singer is at striking a pose, her relief is palpable once it’s over.

“I felt uncomfortable today,” she admits. “Knowing I have bad angles and the photographer can take a bad shot makes me insecure. But I’m a lot better than I used to be. In my first shoot after having treatment, I went into meltdown and ran away from the studio. So I’ve made progress.”

That’s a major understatement. This is the girl, after all, who first found fame as an American TV actress when she was just seven years old. By 15 she was a pop star, billed as Disney’s successor to Miley Cyrus’ teen-queen crown.

Yet behind the beaming smile and beautiful voice, Demi, like so many child stars before her, was self-destructing.

Bulimia – which she’d suffered from since the age of 12 – ravaged her body, and then there was the drink, reported cocaine abuse, depression and self-harm.

Then, in November 2010, she had a very public meltdown. After punching a backing dancer on a plane during a tour, Demi was admitted to rehab for three months. There followed a further six months when she was so disillusioned by the industry, she considered quitting.

Only now, as her third album, Unbroken, is released, does she feel ready to return to the limelight – and speak out about the brutal Hollywood culture that almost destroyed her.

“I’m not saying I’m perfect, or fixed, but I am learning to love and accept myself. My outlook is more positive and I am happy,” she says.

Surrounded by a security guard and half a dozen Topshop bags from a whirlwind shopping splurge, Albuquerque-born Demi is cautious but candid, and refreshingly free of the psycho-babble you would expect from a celeb who has spent three months in rehab.

Any scars from her self-harming are hidden by tattoos on her wrists, which say “Stay” and “Strong” – a tribute to her fans for supporting her.

Demi hit screens in 2005, playing Angela in children’s series Barney & Friends. At 14, she landed roles in Disney film Camp Rock and television show Sonny With A Chance.

She was part of an exclusive group of teen actors, including the Jonas Brothers, Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, who – like Britney and Christina before them – had the good looks and squeaky-clean personalities required by the Disney machine.

But as stardom beckoned, so did bullies at her school in Dallas, Texas.

“They called me a whore and told me I was fat and ugly. I shouldn’t have listened, but I took it to heart and it hurt. I thought maybe I didn’t have friends because I was too fat,” she remembers.

So she starved herself, and anything she did eat, she threw up again. Within six months she had lost over 2st and weighed 6st 4lb – unhealthy for her 5ft 2in height.

“I’d make myself sick up to six times a day,” she says. “My mum was worried, but because I was going through puberty I was having growth spurts so she assumed that was why I was thinner.”

When skinniness didn’t provide her with the friends or happiness she yearned for, Demi sought solace in drugs. It was reported that she was snorting cocaine, but Demi – aware of the influence on her young fan base – is reluctant to go into detail.

“It’s something I don’t really want to talk about,” she says apologetically. “What I can say is that I was depressed. I would come off stage in front of 18,000 people and suddenly be alone in a hotel room. I’d come crashing down and would try to find a way to recreate that feeling, to stay ‘up’.”

Being based in Hollywood made it easier to get access to illegal substances.

“Promoters gave me drugs and alcohol in restaurants or clubs. They wanted me to come back so I would be seen there. They were basically kissing my ass,” she says, a flash of anger briefly interrupting her sunny demeanour.

“I thought they were my friends. I thought I was having fun. Being a celebrity can be dangerous. Nobody says ‘no’. That’s why so many end up overdosing and dying. It could definitely have happened to me.”

When the drugs didn’t block out her pain, she cut herself. “It started with my wrists. People saw that, so I cut in places they couldn’t see,” she says.

“You do it because you feel so bad inside. You don’t know how to take it out other than on yourself.”

Demi – whose mother Dianna, a former cheerleader, divorced her father Patrick when Demi was just two – felt unable to confide in her parents.

“I’d just get scolded if they found out,” she says. “They were worried, but I knew they wouldn’t understand. I had a hard time opening up to friends. People were there for me but I didn’t utilise them. Do I wish I had? Yes.”

Instead, she threw herself into her work. Demi’s first album, Don’t Forget, was released in 2008. The following year she starred in the Disney film, Princess Protection Program, and released her second album, Here We Go Again. It shot to No.1 in the US charts.

“I went from movie to album to touring to television and back,” she says. “Being in the limelight wasn’t the root of my problems, but it didn’t help. I never took more than two weeks off in four years and it caught up with me.”

After Demi punched backing dancer Alex Welch in November 2010, allegedly because she believed Alex had told tour managers she’d been behaving inappropriately, her family and management finally recognised the extent of her problems and sent her to rehab.

“It wasn’t my idea, but I didn’t fight it,” says Demi.

She spent the next three months at the Timberline Knolls facility in Illinois.

“It was really, really hard and scary,” she says. “I was homesick and lonely and several times I thought f*** it, I’m leaving. But my mum told me I would regret it. This was my only chance.”

Slowly, she started to recover.

“I had 14 hours of therapy a day. I listened to music and learned to knit. When I finally left, it was like being let out of prison.”

After her release last January, she took six months off, and enjoyed it so much she considered staying out of the limelight for good.

“I didn’t know if I’d be able to go back to work, but I knew I would get so bored. I couldn’t see myself going to college or working nine-to-five.”

Last September, she returned to the stage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. “It was awesome,” she says. “Although there is a lot of temptation, I’d learned to cope.”

The songs on her new album reflect her heartache, and include For The Love Of A Daughter, about the rift between Demi and her father after he – seemingly keen to cash in on his daughter’s notoriety – did a series of interviews about her.

The betrayal is still raw, and she says she has no interest in rebuilding a relationship with him.

Nor does Demi plan to resume acting until she is fully confident. “I need to be secure in my body before I go back in front of the camera. Anyone in recovery from an eating disorder would find that triggering, and I’m not ready,” she says.

She admits her stunning new size 10-12 body is taking some getting used to: “After so long being thin, it was terrifying being heavier. But I am a naturally curvy Hispanic girl. I don’t deprive myself – I had a Kit Kat last night, but I don’t eat s*** every day. I have a meal service that brings my food to my home so I don’t have to think about being healthy.”

Although she no longer drinks, Demi admits that she has self-harmed and made herself throw up since leaving rehab. “I’ve slipped up a few times, but each time I have learned from it, and it’s become further apart,” she says.

She’s still BFFs with Miley Cyrus, and has found an unlikely ally in Cheryl Cole, who, after watching a recent MTV documentary about Demi’s troubles, tweeted her support. “I was so excited. I’d love to meet her,” Demi says. Currently single, her exes include Joe Jonas, 22, and actor Wilder Valderrama, 32.

“I’m not dating at all. I love having a boyfriend but need to be secure on my own first,” she says.

Despite Demi having had a lifetime of troubles before she’s even 20, she insists she has no regrets.

“There were times I wish I’d been a normal teenager so I could make mistakes and not be scrutinised. But I don’t mourn the childhood I never had. I’d rather have been travelling the world and making albums than at high school.”

And as for the bullies who made her life hell? “I don’t think or care about them,” she says. “I wouldn’t change what I went through. I’ve learned from it and it’s made me stronger.”

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Celebrity News April 10, 2012 AT 6:23PM
By Zach Johnson

Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas are back together . . . on behalf of Acuvue’s 1-Day Starts Today contest.

The former Disney Channel stars, who dated for several months in 2010, joined Allyson Felix, 26, Meaghan Martin, 20, and Tyler Blackburn, 25, to film promos for the brand at a private residence in Malibu on February 8. Before the shoot, Lovato, 19, denied internet reports she was rekindling the flame with her ex Jonas, 22.

“We’ve been really good friends for so long. So it’s been cool hanging out with him again,” Lovato told Us Weekly, confirming that “nothing romantic” was happening. “I didn’t even know that was a rumor!”

Lovato was excited to team up with Martin, who played her arch nemesis in the Camp Rock movies. “It’s cool because we’ve gotten to work together before, and now we’re working together again. It’s kind of like a reunion,” she said. “So it’s nice. It’s really fun.”

Jonas added: “I’ve been lucky to be able to work with a lot of great people in my life, two of whom are Demi and Meaghan. . . It’s been a while since I’ve seen them.”
“We’ve all been kind of on different paths, but I see them at award shows and things like that,” Jonas told Us. “And any time we see them, it’s like family reunion. We have catch-up time and reminisce.”

The five stars will mentor the winners of Acuvue’s 1-Day Starts Today contest, which asks users to upload a one-minute YouTube video revealing their secret hopes and dreams. “I’ve never really mentored anybody before other than like my little sister, so it’s going to be exciting,” Lovato said.

Pretty Little Liars star Blackburn added: “It’s exciting that I’m going to be able to see somebody experience a taste of what they want to do with their lives. . . if I was 15 or 16 and that happened to me, I would be beside myself. The fact that I can actual lend a hand [in making someone's dream come true] is so fun.”

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Demi Lovato has revealed that she deliberately scaled back her workload after she finished up with rehab last year, after being treated like “a product” by Disney bosses.

Demi checked into a treatment centre in 2010 to deal with a number of issues, including an eating disorder, depression and self-harming.

As a Disney star, she explained that she was treated like “a product” rather than a person, but people have been much more respectful since she left rehab and staged a huge comeback.

Demi tells BBC’s Newsbeat, “I notice people do treat me differently. People I work with, they’re more cautious of the workload that I have. I feel almost like I’m being treated more like a human being now, because before it was so easy to be treated like a product…

“I definitely feel like people are being more respectful of my workload and the pressures this career can put on you.”

Demi believes that she “gained respect” from others for decided to enter rehab and face up to her problems.

She adds, “There was a lot of embarrassment and a lot of shame. When I went into rehab I felt like a failure and I felt, for everybody that told me growing up ‘You’re going to be successful, but don’t turn out like that one girl,’ I felt like I’d turned into that ‘one girl’. I was like, ‘I proved everybody right’.

“I just let a lot of people down, but I realised that by getting help, I wasn’t letting anybody down – I was actually gaining respect from a lot of people because making that decision was very hard but it ultimately would change my life.”

Demi is doing so well! We’re so proud of her.

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Joe Jonas and Meaghan Martin are back for the 2012 Acuvue 1-Day Contest.

Joining the two are Demi Lovato, Tyler Blackburn and athlete Allyson Felix for the contest, which will give five winners the chance to meet and be mentored for a day by one of the five teen icons.

The winners will also receive a second trip to Los Angeles to attend a teen event, and a one-year supply of 1-DAY ACUVUE® MOIST® Brand Contact Lenses.

Want to enter? All you have to do is upload a thirty (30) to sixty (60) second video showing or telling what you hope to achieve one day, how you find the confidence to pursue their dreams and why you should be chosen. You can enter through June 7th on YouTube.

Want some inspiration? Check out the winners of the 2011 contest!

Source: Just Jared, Jr.