Thursday, August 7, 2008

The House Bunny Movie Angers National Sorority




In a press release issued by the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority they have denounced "The House Bunny" movie. Unlike "Legally Blonde" this movie does not enhance the image of greek or sorority life. In the fictitious "Legally Blonde", Elle Woods is a member of Delta Nu which was loosely based on the Delta Zeta sorority (Pink & Green). Most in the Greek system can tell which colors represent which sororities and fraternities as they will do with this stupid "Bunny" movie. Plus, this movie seems quite similar to the movie "Sorority Boys".

Although I'm not a ZTA but as a member of a Greek organization no one wants their organization to be seen in a bad light. We love and respect them.

Style and Focus PR

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Zeta Tau Alpha Denounces “The House Bunny” Movie

INDIANAPOLIS—Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity for women expresses dismay that Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison Productions will release in August the feature film, “The House Bunny.”

This movie depicts a sorority called “Zeta Alpha Zeta” and refers to its members as “Zetas” and its facility as the “Zeta House.” The chapter house shown in the movie has the word “ZETA” above the door in turquoise, one of the official colors of the Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity.

The Fraternity is the exclusive owner of the registered trademarks Zeta Tau Alpha and the Greek letters ZTA, and has been consistently using the term Zeta and Zetas to conduct business for nearly 100 years. The Fraternity believes that the use of “ZETA” in the film is improper and confusingly similar to ZTA. Zeta Tau Alpha is working with legal counsel to explore its options.

“We regret that the production and distribution companies have chosen to release a movie that portrays collegiate fraternity and sorority life in an offensive and inaccurate manner,” said Zeta Tau Alpha National President Laura Ladewig Mauro. “We have written a letter of protest to both companies but have received no response.”

Zeta Tau Alpha was founded in 1898 at the State Female Normal School (now Longwood University) in Farmville, Va., and has 148 active collegiate chapters and more than 195,000 members worldwide. A member of the National Panhellenic Conference of Greek women’s organizations, ZTA develops members’ leadership, academic and service skills and supports breast cancer education and awareness as its national philanthropy.

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I want to make one correction. Legally Blonde was based on Delta Gamma not Delta Zeta. Amanda Brown wrote the book based on her own experiences when she attended Stanford Law School. Watching the movie you can see many correlations with DG including the crest, the Yellow Tea Rose compared to DG Cream Rose, etc.

Book Girl said...

Thanks it's been a while since I've read the book.

Anonymous said...

As a recent college grad and Zeta alum, I WILL NOT go see this movie.

Odds are it's going to bomb at the box office.

Anonymous said...

I am a Zeta Tau Alpha alumna and I want to thank you for writing this post.

When I saw the previews for the movie, I did do a double take on the letters above the door. I completely understand how some might be offended by the movie and will not go see it purely to support the Fraternity.

However, I will admit that the previews led me to believe that this movie was a spoof since the "bunny" is the young woman who does all those. If I had seen it, I would have viewed it as such. Hopefully those who do see it will also see it as the spoof it is.

Anonymous said...

i definetly had to take a double take when i saw these previews. Especially the part when "the house bunny" is walking to the "zeta" house and the you see the letters ZTA on top of the door and the "Z" falls on her.

At that moment i couldn't believe that ZTA would allow something like that - but then i realized that the letter "E" is supposed to be between the Z and the T (you can see the white outline of where the E is supposed to be). but this makes is clear that it's based on ZTA.

As a ZTA alumn - i'm offended that they used our sorority (who's raised millions of dollars for breast cancer awareness and eduction) as a comedy!

I will not be going to see this movie - although i am a bit curious about what else they will use to show ZTA.

Anonymous said...

Just watched the movie last night and I was equally curious to see how ZTA became the sorority of misfits for the movie. Our chapter was a hodge-podge of women with more interests than becoming sex kittens and so we were viewed somewhat that way. We were referred to as the "Zeta Zoo." I was getting two men from NASA trying to recruit me my senior year. Then two of my sisters worked in DC and campaigned for Bob Dole. I liked the ending which stated sororities were ego boosters which gave self-confidence to the girls to succeed.

Anonymous said...

I am a pledge if ZTA and will be intiated soon. I have the movie House Bunny before I was pledged for ZTA at my university. In the movie there are noticably things that have to do with Zeta Tau Alpha. But if you have seen the movie in the plot ZTA is the heroin of the movie. Not only that but if you are not in Zeta before you see the movie, you don't even notice the different things in the movie. the many things in the movie you see are the Zeta Tau Alpha Colors, the sign on the front of the house saying ZTA when the E is missing, and other moments. however the writers probably didn't even notice or think about ZTA when making the script. For those in ZTA you should see the movie because there are some school that have Zeta sororities present to people what they show in the movie.

Anonymous said...

Actually Legally Blonde the Movie was based on Sigma Delta Tau the producer is an alum of SDT

Anonymous said...

Also the yellow tea rose is the flower of Sigma Delta Tau