A year after bringing debauched dance moves and wild tongue gyrations to MTV’s Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus returned to the live show on Sunday night and stirred up trouble without ever taking the stage.
This time the pop star sent a 22-year-old homeless man named Jesse Helt to the microphone in her place: a 180-degree turn toward a serious cause that, if nothing else, demonstrated a keen understanding of media manipulation and image management.
Near the end of the telecast, at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., when Jimmy Fallon announced that Ms. Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball” had won video of the year, a longhaired man appeared at the microphone. “My name is Jesse,” he said, reading from notes. “I am accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving, lost and scared for their lives right now. I know, because I am one of those people.”
“I have survived in shelters all over this city,” he continued. “The music industry will make over $7 billion this year, and outside these doors are 54,000 human beings who have no place to call home.” (Los Angeles County estimates that it has a homeless population of roughly 54,000.)
The speech concluded with an exhortation. “If you want to make a powerful change in the world right now, join us and go to Miley’s Facebook page,” Mr. Helt said as the cameras cut to Ms. Cyrus, weeping in the audience as others clapped nervously.
Ms. Cyrus, according to a representative, modeled his appearance after Marlon Brando’s decision to have a woman named Sacheen Littlefeatheraccept his best actor Oscar for “The Godfather” in 1973 as a protest against the movie industry’s treatment of Native Americans.
As Mr. Helt spoke, Ms. Cyrus’s representatives introduced via her social media channels a Prizeo.com fund-raising campaign for My Friend’s Place, an organization in Los Angeles that helps homeless people from the ages of 12 to 25 find housing, jobs, health care and schooling. Those who make donations before Sept. 21 will be entered in a lottery. The prize is a chance to hang out with Ms. Cyrus when her “Bangerz” tour reaches Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 28.
More than $200,000 had been raised by Monday afternoon, according toMy Friend’s Place.
Source: New York Times