In the spirit of Miley Cyrus’ tendency these past few years to channel Lana Del Rey, the video for her latest single from Bass Persuades, “Let’s Get Married,” takes place at the Chateau Marmont. The notorious hotel (made all the more notorious at the start of the decade for the treatment of its employees) that Del Rey was orbiting (no Miley song reference intended) back in the early ‘10s. Undoubtedly a “heyday” of continued “privacy” (read: carte blanche to do whatever one wanted) for celebrities before “the Chateau” started to come under fire in 2020 thanks to an exposé from The Hollywood Reporter. In 2022, employee dissatisfaction reached a fever pitch with a boycott that still didn’t stop Jay-Z and Beyoncé from throwing their Oscars after-party there. Nor did it stop Taylor Swift from throwing a Grammys after-party there in February of 2023, shortly after a union contract was ratified.
And, despite all the bad publicity and behind-the-scenes turmoil, miraculously, by the end of ‘23, The Hollywood Reporter was already hailing the Chateau Marmont as “the hotel comeback story of the year.” Not that anyone of the “celebrity set” was ever really planning to stay away based on “moral grounds.” Nor was something as “radical” as actually ousting the owner, André Balazs, ever a question. Even though it’s likely that the only way to somewhat kill the hydra-headed problem of the Chateau’s business practices is to bury the immortal head. Especially when that head belongs to someone who was described by a former employee as follows: “It’s like having an alcoholic, drug-addicted father, but it’s your CEO.”
And, talking of addiction, Cyrus herself has been sober since 2020 (after a brief relapse spurred by the pandemic lockdowns). Which is part of what makes her promoting the Chateau in “Let’s Get Married” more than slightly ironic considering it’s long been known as a haven for drug-fueled debauchery. Then again, maybe it’s a testament to the Chateau’s revamped, “cleaner” image that “sober Miley” can still have a fun, sexy time there. Indeed, it’s the “sexy” that Cyrus leans into with some help from her fiancé/go-to co-producer, Maxx Morando. Shown within the first few seconds swaying his hips in a Bruce Lee t-shirt and twirling a drumstick (not the ice cream) in his hand, the exterior of the Chateau Marmont is then quickly revealed at the four-second mark, with director Mert Alas (who also shot the cover and other promotional photos for Bass Persuades) revealing the moments when Cyrus and Morando first arrive at the hotel, smiling, holding hands and carrying enough luggage to indicate they’ll be staying for a while.
As has often been the tradition of celebrities staying at the Marmont (just ask Lindsay Lohan, who didn’t always think paying was the norm as much as staying). In this way (and a few others), the Chateau is something of the West Coast version of the Chelsea Hotel, albeit far more luxurious and picturesque. But Cyrus does bring a touch of the Chelsea Hotel’s infamous “grit” to her glimpse into the Chateau in the sense that, behind every door she (or someone else) opens, there seems to some sex shit going on (again, this is mainly because Cyrus herself is no longer about the drug life she might otherwise promote). Even if it’s just “suggestive” sex shit, like a hot guy eating an apple (yes, it’s very Garden of Eden-coded), or a woman applying lipstick to the lips of an already androgynous man.
In this “sex behind every door” regard, Cyrus once again borrows from Madonna (as she also did for certain aesthetics of the “Bass Persuades” video), with the influence of the “Justify My Love” video being all over this (complete with being shot in black and white). Even if in a much tamer and far more monogamous way. And, of course, a more overtly romantic way, with pots of fresh flowers filling Cyrus’ room (also an undoubted nod to her hit, Grammy-winning single of the same name) as she lies in bed with Morando, who then puts one of those flowers in her hair to add to the “idyllic” moment.
To be sure, living these idyllic moments is just as important to Cyrus as documenting them, which she does with a Bolex camera (something the voyeurs of Madonna’s “Justify My Love” video could get on board with). That is, when she’s not offering Morando and her viewers a genre she might have “invented”: “shadow porn.” In other words, she lets her naked shadow on the wall (donning a cowboy hat for added kink) act as one of the more sensual instances of the video, with a scene of Morando using the Bolex to film her. Not just in the buff, but also while she’s wearing some Dolce & Gabbana (for, like Madonna before her, she has been one of their spokespeople) leopard-print lingerie.
In between their own “vignettes” of intimacy, other couples are shown in the hotel as well. Including two naked men playfully running down the hall together. Again, just another day at the Chateau. And, as for Miley taking over the hotel to shoot this video, it’s no secret that she’s been a regular there since 2023, when she started doing some intimate live performances as what would turn out to be a “test run” for her forthcoming two-day stint at the Hollywood Bowl. Speaking on this to Zane Lowe, she commented, “When people come to L.A., I think, when you think of L.A., [the Hollywood Bowl] is kind of one of the monumental places that you would think of, including, you know, spots like Chateau Marmont, which was kind of, it’s the “baby Bowl.” It’s the one that I started to go, like, ‘Let’s see if people will actually show up.’ And people showed up.” Namely, a lot of celebrities, including Bono. Celebrities who just happened to be at the Chateau because it still has a reputation for “sequestering” and “protecting” the famous.
That is, when it’s not enabling them to the breaking point of self-destruction (see: John Belushi). On that note, Miley does eventually concede to being around some alcohol revelry around the one-minute-fourteen-second mark, at which time the “Justify My Love” influence gives way to a “Deeper and Deeper” one (that video, too, taking place in L.A.), with this scene of her and some others seated on the floor laughing giving off the same vibe as Madonna, Debi Mazar and Sofia Coppola watching a muscular man in his underwear pose for them. And, like “Deeper and Deeper,” there’s a 1970s-esque feel to this scene, with a long-haired shirtless man (also muscular) holding a vinyl, another man with an Afro hanging out and a generally “swingers” aura to the dynamic of everyone in the room.
The nakedness ramps up as the video continues, yet another sign that Cyrus has studied from the Madonna playbook. Along with showcasing two men kissing. Though that doesn’t mean she doesn’t leave plenty of opportunity for the straight couples in the hotel to show their love too. With other voyeuristic scenes (as if someone is still shooting on that Bolex camera) creeping in as the song progresses.
And another thing that creeps in, sonically speaking, is a slight callback to the sound of Cyrus’ own “End of the World” from Something Beautiful. During “Let’s Get Married,” there comes an instant at around the two-minute-nine-second mark where Cyrus sing-talks in between the “real” chorus (“Let’s go get married tonight/Let’s get married/I’m having visions of white” [very “Like a Virgin” of her]), “Diamonds dancin’ on me” in such a way that recalls how she sings, “The sky is falling, falling like a comet now.” Perhaps a subconscious nod to how getting married can feel like that too (i.e., “end of the world-y”). At the same time, Cyrus insisted to Lowe, “…marriage doesn’t need to be a prison, it can actually be a playground.”
She clearly wants to get that point across as the antics get messier and more buck wild—in short, what one would expect of from any guest at the Chateau…no matter how “squeaky clean” (relatively speaking) its image is now supposed to be. And, talking of squeaky clean, one of the running scenes throughout the video is of Cyrus soaking in the bathtub. And, by the end, a clothed Morando chooses to join his naked soon-to-be wife in that watery space.
As she holds him kind of like her child (which tracks considering he’s the younger one between the two of them), the tableau offers another callback to one of Cyrus’ own works: the “Reborn” video from her Something Beautiful visual album. In it, Cyrus also includes a scene of herself lying down with Morando positioned in the “role” more traditionally associated with where the woman in the relationship gets to be: “the nook” (as Carrie Bradshaw once called it). Thus, whether she realizes it or not, Cyrus is also channeling Madonna by subverting the conventions of how a woman is supposed to “act”—in general and in a relationship (and yes, Madonna, too, had to turn to younger men as a means to carry this out).
What’s more, Cyrus’ entire “vibe” with Morando appears to prove the recent Adéla declaration, “His face is so androgynous/We kinda look alike/I’m kinda into that/Is that weird?/I’m the man/In my itty-bitty dress, yeah, I’m the man/It’s true, I like my boys a little feminine/Where we both understand, I’m the man, I’m the man, I’m the man.” So it is that when her and Morando do finally get married (after all this talking about it), the pronouncement of who’s husband and who’s wife will be at the audience’s discretion. In short, the kind of gender-bending that “Justify My Love” advocated for long ago.
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