LOS ANGELES — 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 Littlefeather accept 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 to My Friend’s Place.
Was Ms. Cyrus’s move a serious turn toward philanthropy? A crass effort to improve her image? Ice bucket challenge envy? All of the above? Detractors will undoubtedly cringe at some particulars: fixing homelessness by competing to go party in Rio?
In a video distributed by Ms. Cyrus’s representatives immediately after her stand-in spoke, she said his appearance was not a stunt. “Now is just the beginning for me,” she said of the anti-homelessness effort. “We gotta start somewhere.”
Speaking on Ryan Seacrest’s national radio show on Monday morning, Ms. Cyrus said her serious turn was partly based on the media firestorm that followed her raunchy performance at last year’s Video Music Awards. “I know I needed to, after last year, to remember what matters,” she told Mr. Seacrest’s listeners.
Ms. Cyrus said Mr. Helt was now headed to visit his family; he grew up in Salem, Ore., and recently had been living on the streets in Hollywood.
Ms. Cyrus, a former Disney Channel star, was informally advised in the effort by a well-positioned friend: Trevor Neilson, president of G2 Investment Group and a co-founder of Global Philanthropy Group, which has devised charitable campaigns for artists including the singers Bono and Shakira. Mr. Neilson declined to comment, saying Mr. Helt did not want to speak to reporters.
Heather Carmichael, the executive director of My Friend’s Place, confirmed that Mr. Helt has been receiving the organization’s help. Ms. Cyrus met him during a visit to My Friend’s Place on Tuesday, Ms. Carmichael said.
Ms. Cyrus, who appeared at the Video Music Awards in a relatively modest (for her) black leather top and pants, paid to put him up at the BLVD Hotel & Spa in Studio City, Calif., over the weekend and bought him the black suit and white dress shirt that he wore to Sunday’s event. They rode together to the show in Ms. Cyrus’s black S.U.V. Looking uncomfortable, Mr. Helt sat next to Ms. Cyrus during the program (three seats away from Katy Perry) and posed in an Instagram booth backstage.
Ms. Cyrus told Mr. Seacrest that people at the show thought Mr. Helt was her boyfriend — until he spoke. Ms. Perry offered him alcohol during the show.
“I was like, no, this kid has to go read a speech,” Ms. Cyrus said, adding that she gave him her trophy for video of the year. She did not say whether he had a home in which to put it.
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