Princess Protection Program

Allison Liddi-Brown casts Demi Lovato as Rosalinda, princess of Costa Luna, and Selena Gomez as Carter Mason, the daughter of the agent hiding her; the crown is Lovato’s, the bait shop job is Gomez’s. The story is set in Louisiana but was shot from start to finish in Puerto Rico: school and homecoming scenes at two San Juan schools, and Castillo Serrallés in Ponce standing in for the palace. Filming ran from March 14 to April 18, 2008, over a year before the broadcast. The channel’s release, citing Nielsen, puts the premiere at 8.5 million viewers against 4.4 million for CBS in the same slot, and ranks it the third most watched original movie debut in Disney Channel history to that point. Liddi-Brown won the Directors Guild of America award for children’s programs. Gomez won a 2009 Teen Choice summer award; Lovato was nominated in the same category and did not take it. A good fit if you want the two way tutoring as the real subject, Carter teaching Rosalinda to pass as an ordinary American teenager and Rosalinda teaching Carter to disarm the girls who look down on her. Not for viewers expecting the coup between Costa Luna and Costa Estrella to rest on serious political ground; both countries are invented and it all comes down to a dance.