Miley Cyrus desecrates Meadow Brook Hall

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Posted: Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 at 8:41 pm | Last Updated: Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 8:59 am
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As a student at Oakland University, I take pride in the things involving our campus, including any positive media attention the university gets. So you could imagine my excitement when I heard Miley Cyrus was filming her new music video on our campus.

In August, Cyrus filmed her music video for her European single “Who Owns My Heart” in Meadow Brook Hall. It wasn’t until I saw the music video that I realized just how wrong the location was for a video such as that.

Meadow Brook Hall was one of OU cofounder Matilda Wilson’s most prized possessions. Filled with elegance and beauty, Meadow Brook is the fourth largest historic house museum in the United States. It’s renowned for its excellent craftsmanship, architectural detailing and grand scale. With such prestige, it would make perfect sense for one of today’s most popular musicians to film a music video there.

If you’re like me, however, you would envision a tasteful, elegant video — not the trashy end product that resulted. This video takes provocative to a new level and throws respect out the window.

It didn’t have to be that way. In the video, Cyrus is in Wilson’s bed, but rather than innocently laying in it, she’s laying upside down in lingerie. There are also scenes where Cyrus is on all fours acting animalistic and overtly sexual.

She also uses Wilson’s bathroom, where she sits on the tub in just her underwear. That bathroom is so unique, it’s more a piece of art than anything else. For Cyrus to be dancing in her underwear in there is almost as if you or I were dancing around the Detroit Institute of Arts in our underwear.

Perhaps the most disrespectful scenes in this video are of Cyrus dancing on the Hall’s historic dining table in high heels, crawling atop it on her knees. Tables are for eating, not standing, kneeling or dancing — especially not historic ones that dignified people have once gathered and shared meals at.

One part of the video portrays Meadow Brook Hall as a dance club, with about 100 sweaty kids dancing and grinding on one another. Cyrus joins the scene provocatively and seductively dancing between two females. That is not to say I am against homosexuality in any way, because I’m not — it’s not who she’s dancing with that bothers me, it’s where and how.

Don’t get me wrong. My point isn’t that Cyrus should have filmed her video elsewhere. My point is that she should have had some class. The entire video uses the rooms of the estate for purposes other than what they’re intended for. The taste — or lack thereof — used in this video was disrespectful to the prestigious location.

This video has gained negative media coverage and controversy since it first premiered on Cyrus’s YouTube channel due to its distasteful nature.

If the scenes inside didn’t give it away, the shot of the outside makes evident the location of this debacle. The thought of that video giving OU a negative image is sickening.

I wish the 17-year-old singer would have not only acted her age, but thought about the history and culture of the estate before she decided to show such disrespect on film for all to see.

EMU


  • Homey

    “Who Owns My Heart”? The sadistic music industry of course.

  • Joseph Corlett

    Ms. Gasper:

    To be able to comment intelligently, your editorial forced me to do something I wouldn’t normally do, watch a Miley Cyrus video.

    I did not find the video “trashy”, “disrespectful” or “distasteful”. What I find trashy, disrespecful and distasteful are sanctimonious columnists who don’t do their homework.

    According to Geoff Upward, Meadowbrook Hall’s Executive Director, it costs over $4,400.00 per day to maintain and operate Meadowbrook’s 88,000 square feet. Meadowbrook actively encourages the film and video industry. Had you taken the time, as I did, to visit their website, you could have easily had this information.

    Furthermore, it is the height of arrogance to put propriety above the jobs created in making the video. Michiganders need all the work we can get right now. Videographers have to eat, and that makes jobs for caterers. If that means helping Miley prance in her underpants, I’m all for it.

    Mr. Upward is to be commended for his economic stewardship of this beautiful historic architectural marvel. Michigan needs more like him and Miley and less finger-waggers.

  • Dan Fenner

    What a sexist remark. Shame.

  • Gasper

    Looks like not everyone read closely, to where it states that I was not against the video being at MeadowBrook, just it’s distasteful nature! I’m well aware that it was a finically smart choice, but on Cyrus’s behalf, the prancing in the underwear was not needed.

  • Rhiannon

    Mr. Corlett – If you had done your homework, you would know that Meadow Brook is not spelled Meadowbrook.

  • amanda

    I don’t see how you want her to \act her age\ when she is only 17. Not all 17 year olds are perfect angels. To her, this was just a location to shoot her video and nothing more. You can’t even tell the location unless you actually know the place. People around the world are not going, \oh look, that video was shot at Oakland University.\ I didn’t even know she had her video filmed here until someone told me, and I attend here. We should just be happy that she was actually filming here.

  • Joseph Corlett

    Mr. Fenner:
    You don’t specify which of my comments you consider sexist. Readers expect more specific criticism instead of a lazy ad hominem attack especially from the Senior Editor of the Oakland Post. Your title is conspicuous in its absence.

    Let me tell readers what I believe is going on. You were in the office of the Oakland Post when I dropped by to let Editor Kay Nguyen know that I found these remarks of hers, appearing in the Oakland Post, sexist:

    “What are your pet names for each other?
    STEVE: I call her “Kay.” Or “babe.” Sometimes “love,” but only in tweets hoping she reads it with a British accent.
    KAY: I call him “Pancake Butt” because there is one flat plane there.”

    http://oaklandpostonline.com/2010/10/12/mouthing-off/media-convergence-2-the-legend-continues/

    Had Steve Wiseman made similar comments about Ms. Nguyen’s breasts, his remarks would never have made the paper. Unlike you, I specify which remarks are sexist and why. Readers deserve no less and should be spared your petty retributions.

    Ms. Gasper:

    Do you have any expertise in the content or marketing of pop videos? I’m not sure a music video of a fully clad Miley Cyrus knitting a sweater while singing would be a big hit with her audience. Any excessive restrictions on the content of filming at Meadow Brook Hall, moral or contractual, can only make it less competitive.

    Rhiannon:

    I’m pleased that the biggest criticism of my post you can muster is typographical in nature.

    Sincerely,

    Joseph Corlett

  • Bill Muary

    I think you’re 100% correct. Miley Cyrus is a f***ing idiot. She doesn’t need to “act her age” if she doesn’t want to, but don’t put that type of shit all over the web for her YOUNG fans to idolize. Down with Miley.

  • Debbie

    I first learned about this video from my son, a senior at OU. The achool pride I hear from him and from this article’s author is heartening. However, I wouldn’t go quite as far as to say Ms. Cyrus desecrated the mansion. Evidently, this video called for a mansion–any mansion–setting. Having said that, however, I think this is probably the sluttiest video I’ve ever watched. It bothers me as a parent because as the star of Hannah Montana, she should be serving as a positive role model for young girls. There is also the fact that during the shooting of this video, Cyrus was 17 and therefore a minor. Some may cal this video art; I call it child pornography.