The House Bunny
 

So I went to go see Maid of Honor with a friend of mine and saw a preview called "The House Bunny." I know usually there are clues that it is connected to a sorority, but right in the middle of the preview you can see ZTA, as the Z falls off the house. I'm just wondering if others think this is a coincidence or not. I'm also wondering if it is a sister involved in the movie, or someone that had a bad Zeta experience. Thoughts anyone? Oh you can see the trailer by going to www.thehousebunny.com. Read the synopsis too.

Can the name ZTA be used without HQ's permission? Surely this will be addressed by ZTA's national representatives? I imagine in the end of the movie, the ZTA's will be the best house on campus, but I see what you are saying. It's not great for ZTA if only the trailer is seen. Sorry this has happened. It's odd.

Wouldn't it be a good thing for all the NPC and NPHC sororities to object to this, to the producer? Really, no one should be making movies about sororities, using our sorority names. I hope ZTA moves on this, I would think all the sororities would be happy to support them.

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.




IO released this statement in regards to the movie, but seeing as that they didn't respond, I think that ZTA might have to take legal action. Sad.

The House Bunny
 

During recruitment our chapter did a Cabaret themed party and sang a song "Cuddle Bunny" ....That unfortunately, is how I picked my name on this board. It went something like ...Cuddle Bunny, She's a Zeta hunny...She's a classy gal...

cuddle bunny was one of the songs we would serenade fraternities with. nice to know it is still around.

I saw the preview a while ago and thought i was like hallucinating when i saw the Z from the ZTA fall off the house. I'm PISSED personally. I think National's response denouncing the film isn't enough. it CLEARLY says ZTA in the preview, showing a zeta house in shambles with nasty girls! I hope they are taking legal action..

Like someone on this thread says, the end of the movie is predictable, im sure they are going to be the best house in the end, but how many people are actually going to see this movie? Maybe thousands of little kids, but I bet girls rushing are going to have a bad image of zeta by just seeing the preview.

in short, we're screwed

the end

Pre-note: Sorry for crashing the board, but when I saw this preview I actually wondered if there was a thread about it on GC.

Honestly, I'm a little apprehensive at this film. Part of me wants to see it just to see what all is said, but I'm also so disgusted at it that I don't want to see it.

I'm also ticked that they would use the persona of an actual sorority. While it may not be ZTA specifically, people are going to get the wrong idea when they hear Zeta. It just really makes me sad the makers of the film would do that.

I just hope this film doesn't give a negative connotation to any Greek organization, though I'm afraid it will...

But I am definitely standing with you guys! :)

thanks piphiangel.

In the preview, if you watch closely, the letters on the house are actually ZETA, the E has already fallen so it looks like ZTA, but you can notice a gap between the Z and T and the E on the ground, then the Z follows.

What annoys me is, when Shelly is walking down the street of Greek mansions, ALL the other houses represent their Greek letters such as Delta Rho. How come this sorority does not have ZAZ, why ZETA? AND why is it in turquoise? One of ZTA's official colors. It is almost like someone on the film WANTED the movie associated with ZTA, not sure if in a bad way necessarily.

If you ask me, I have a theory. The plot is derived from this ex-playboy bunny coming upon a sorority house. So I am sure someone did some research and found out that ZTA's national mascot is the bunny and thought it made sense, let's emmulate ZTA. Perhaps not even considering the opinions of ZTAs out there, or even other greeks.

I am not trying to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, but that makes sense to me. I also do not support this in anyway. I do believe that IO should take more action & hopefullly we will see it in months to come.

ZLAM

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k2...nzeta/ZeTA.jpg

Not cool. I won't pay to see it, but I may download it - I can't form an opinion until I've seen it but I don't want them to necessarily get my money either.

ZTA doesn't have a national mascot. Or am I remembering that wrong?

You're quite right, but I know many use a bunny as their mascot (even the Playboy shape at times), as my chapter did. But I've heard of many chapters using different mascots or not having one at all since ZTA does not have an official one.

i wondered this too... i was taught the bunny could be used as a local mascot at the chapters discretion...

Wow! That can't be unintentional! I've reserved making a judgement about his movie, but this is ridiculous. I'm hoping that the Zeta's come out on top in the end, but even so, having the plot of a movie being "a playboy bunny saves a loser sorority" is clearly offensive! I think ZTA has every right to be angry!

Weird... at my chapter, we do gifts after big/little and initiation. At my chapter, we do have animals that represent each family line, we see it as something that unites us since we are a family but don't have the same last name. So after big/little, our gifts are all about our family line animal, then initiation gifts are all about things that are national.

I was given a lot of bunnies for initiation presents, and told it is because it is our national mascot. It is true I cannot find anything on the website about it... so... I don't know... that makes me mad that I was given false info :/

I was a founding member of my chapter and was told by the Executive Director of the fraternity that we do not have a national mascot. However, one of our TLCs told us that the bunny was a very popular local mascot.

My NM education clearly included that fact, that ZTA has no official mascot. Theta Chi chose the bunny, as many chapters have, but that other chapters had chosen differently and that was fine by IO. Sorry if your NM Educator taught you wrong, but that's the official word.

Going back to the movie, it's clearly using copyrighted stuff. And from what I've heard, we're not the only ones who got ripped off. I heard something about a Phi Mu -like chapter name being used also in the movie...

I went to see "Mamma Mia" last week with my husband & daughter. As soon as the trailer for "House Bunny" showed the ZTA letters over the door, my 11year old asked "Is this a movie about Zeta?!" She was very excited at first. Then, not so much.

that's what my niece said when she saw the commercial on tv. needless to say, even at 8 years old, she was NOT happy when the rest of the advertisement was shown.

Hey ladies,
Please excuse the intrusion, but I'd like to give some perspective from a non-ZTA regarding the House Bunny movie. When I first saw the previews for the movie, my initial reaction was "Wait. Was that really ZTA up there?". The more frequently I saw the ads, the more ridiculous the comparison seemed between actual ZTAs and the "Zetas" in the movie. At my school the ZTAs are some of the prettiest, most social girls on campus. So to me, portraying "Zetas" to be these weird, awkward girls was just ridiculous.

I know it's upsetting to see your letters being misrepresented, but just remember why you chose ZTA in the first place. You didn't join it for anyone else. You joined for you. You have fabulous sisters and a strong sisterhood. A movie isn't going to change that.

I (obviously) was an active years ago, but my chapter, Zeta, at UT had angels as our mascot in the late 70s. I still have a huge collection at my parents house. When I moved to Florida and began working, one of my friends was a Zeta at UF who told me their mascot was a zebra. I really don't know if this is still the case in those locations or not.

my chapter(beta gamma) had butterflies as a mascot-they have changed to white rabbits now. as far as i know gamma iota(uf) still has the zebra as their mascot.

our fgcu chapter(kappa tau) has the flamingo as their mascot.

Just a thought from a non-ZTA...

On the show "Greek" the women in the most sought after sorority are also refered to as Zetas (ZBZ sorority). Now, did this anger everyone as well? I know in House Bunny there seem to be many more similarities, but still...they are the Zetas. Just a thought...

The sorority on Greek doesn't use the same colors of the NPC groups, as the House Bunny did for BOTH sororities. That's the sticking point, not how the sororities are portrayed.

I watched the House Bunny, to see it for myself. From the perspective of someone who is not YET greek: It would make one think that the Phi Mu's are mean and the ZTA's are dorky. Of course, that's not what I really think... I'm a ZTA legacy, and I am in the process of getting my school to open for expansion. So obviously it did not really make me think badly of greek life. But I am still offended in the representation that sororities are all about being "pretty and partying." Although I am not yet in one, I know that they are based on sisterhood and philanthropy.

It just made greek life look bad.