Disney Allows a Gay Miley Cyrus Knock-Off Video to Flourish Online
2:24 AM in Miley's Blog by Admin
Who says the Walt Disney Company doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Perhaps no star is more important to the media giant these days than Miley Cyrus, the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” actress who also delivers hit movies, merchandising lines and albums. The already protective company is überprotective of her.
So when a video popped up on YouTube on Monday – depicting seven gay men in speedos cavorting on a beach to “Party in the USA,” Ms. Cyrus’s new single – Disney’s blood could easily have boiled. The upbeat video is G-rated, but a tad on the flamboyant side (writhing on the sand, a pool-dancing sequence).
“I assumed it would be taken down pretty much immediately, particularly because of the music rights issue,” said David Fudge, a 27-year-old marketing executive at Esquire who made the video, titled “Party in the Fire Island Pines.”
But Disney left the ditty alone and it soon exploded in an underground way, collecting 200,000 views in just three days. Disney employees started e-mailing it to each other, and before long Mr. Fudge’s office telephone rang. On the other end: Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide.
“I was like, who?” Mr. Fudge said. “He just said that he loved it and wanted to tell us that. He was extremely nice.”
Mr. Ross declined to comment, but another Disney executive noted that the video (and the reaction to it) demonstrated how Ms. Cyrus was broadening her fan base beyond little girls. Moreover, at a time of declining CD sales, even a teen queen like Ms. Cyrus needs all the attention for her songs that she can get. Her new album, “The Time of Our Lives,” arrives in Wal-Mart stores on Monday.



