New Original Comedy Series for Disney Channel

BURBANK, May 22: Disney
Channel has placed an order for a live-action comedy series tentatively titled Welcome
to Mollywood, starring the young
actress and recording artist Demi Lovato.

Welcome to Mollywood centers on a 15-year-old Midwestern girl (Lovato)
who is chosen through a nationwide search to join the cast of the most popular
and long-running teen sketch-comedy show on TV. The sitcom began production in
September and is set to premiere on Disney Channel in its 2008-09 lineup.

The show is executive
produced by Brian Robbins and his producing partner, Sharla Sumpter Bridgett,
under the recently formed company Varsity Pictures. Steve Marmel (Toon
Disney/Jetix's series Yin Yang Yo,
Fairly Odd Parents) will also
executive produce, along with Michael Feldman (Disney Channel's That's So
Raven, Cory in the House). The pilot was directed by Lee Shallat Chemel and
is her fourth pilot that has been picked up as a series for Disney Channel.

Lovato was featured in
Disney Channel’s short-form comedy series As the Bell Rings, and stars in two Disney Channel original movies: Camp
Rock, which premieres June 20,
where she stars opposite the Jonas Brothers, and Princess Protection Program, premiering later this season. She also has a solo
recording contract with Disney’s Hollywood Records and will perform this summer
on the Jonas Brothers’ Burning Up concert
tour.

Gary Marsh,
the president of entertainment at Disney Channel Worldwide, said, "Our
success is completely driven by the talent we partner with—in front of
and behind the camera. The entire Mollywood creative team is the best in the business when it
comes to creating breakout kid and family comedy. And Demi
Lovato—actress, singer and songwriter—is without a doubt the next
big talent to emerge from Disney Channel."

"The creative team of
Marmel and Feldman, along with Demi Lovato and the entire cast, will support
the success of this unique and highly conceptualized comedy for tweens,"
added Robbins. "We look forward to moving into production and to working
closely with Disney Channel on the series."

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski