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LOS ANGELES â For a second year in a row, Miley Cyrus hijacked MTVâs Video Music Awards on Sunday night, and this time she did it without debauched dance moves or wild tongue gyrations. In fact, she did not even take the stage.
Instead, the rowdy pop star sent a 22-year-old homeless man in her place â a 180-degree turn toward a serious cause and away from the frothy, twerking performance she offered last year that ignited a global media firestorm.
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Near the end of Sundayâs live show, when Jimmy Fallon announced that Ms. Cyrusâs âWrecking Ballâ had won video of the year, a longhaired man who said he was from Oregon and had recently been living on the streets of Hollywood appeared at the microphone. âMy name is Jesse,â the young man said, reading from notes without mentioning his last name. âI am accepting this award on behalf of the 1.6 million runaways and homeless youth in the United States who are starving and lost and scared for their lives. I know, because I am one of those people.â
Photo
Credit Amanda Decadenet
âI have survived in shelters all over this city,â he continued, before attempting to shame the music industry with a speech. âThe 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.â (Los Angeles County estimates that it has a homeless population of roughly 54,000.)
The speech concluded with an exhortation. âIf you want to make a powerful change in the world right now, join us and go to Mileyâs Facebook page,â Jesse said, while the cameras cut to Ms. Cyrus, who sat in the audience weeping as others clapped nervously.
With that, Ms. Cyrus, 21, had upstaged Nicki Minaj, who suffered a wardrobe malfunction during her performance, and Iggy Azalea, who sang her song âBlack Widowâ from inside what looked like the middle of a giant spider web.
Ms. Cyrus, according to a representative, modeled Jesseâs appearance after Marlon Brandoâs decision to have a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather accept his Best Actor Oscar for âThe Godfatherâ in 1973 as a protest against the movie industryâs treatment of Native Americans.
As Jesse spoke, Ms. Cyrusâs representatives introduced via her social media channels a Prizeo.com fund-raising campaign for My Friendâs Place, an organization based 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 with the prize being the chance to hang out with Ms. Cyrus when her Bangerz tour reaches Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 28.
Photo
Credit Christopher Polk/Getty Images for MTV
Was Ms. Cyrusâs move a serious turn toward philanthropy? A crass effort to improve her image? âIce Bucket Challengeâ envy? All of the above? It was hard to fully understand her motives on Sunday night. It certainly demonstrated a Madonna-level understanding of media manipulation. (Detractors will undoubtedly cringe at some of the particulars: Fixing homelessness by competing to go party in Rio?)
In a video distributed by Ms. Cyrusâs representatives immediately after the singerâs stand-in spoke, she said his appearance was not a stunt. âNow is just the beginning for me,â she said of the anti-homelessness effort. âWe gotta start somewhere.â
Ms. Cyrus, a former Disney Channel star, was informally advised in the effort by a well-positioned friend: Trevor Neilson, the president of G2 Investment Group and a co-founder of Global Philanthropy Group, which has designed charitable campaignsfor artists including the singers Bono and Shakira in the past. Mr. Neilson declined to comment and would not disclose Jesseâs last name, citing the young manâs wishes.
Heather Carmichael, the executive director of My Friendâs Place, also declined to provide information about Jesse, except to say that he had received the organizationâs help. Ms. Cyrus met him during a visit to My Friendâs Place on Tuesday, Ms. Carmichael said.
Ms. Cyrus, who appeared at the Video Music Awards in a relatively modest (for her) black leather halter top and pants, paid to put Jesse up at the BLVD Hotel & Spa in Studio City, Calif., over the weekend and bought him the black suit and white dress shirt he wore to Sundayâs event. They rode together to the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., on Sunday afternoon for the show in Ms. Cyrusâs black S.U.V. Looking uncomfortable, Jesse sat next to Ms. Cyrus during the show (three seats away from Katy Perry) and posed in an Instagram booth backstage.
The post-show plan included a trip to In-N-Out burger.
An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the president of G2 Investment Group. He is Trevor Neilson, not Nielsen.
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