Farrah Fawcett was intentionally left out of the "in memoriam" segment at Sunday’s Oscars, organisers have admitted. Facing a barrage of criticism after failing to honour the late Charlie’s Angels star.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences executive director Bruce Davis said organisers considered including Fawcett but decided she was better known for her "remarkable television work".
The Academy believed it would be more appropriate for the actress, who died from cancer in June last year, to be honoured at the Emmy Awards, Davis told AP. The reasoning is unlikely to placate Fawcett’s family, who released.
A press statement following Sunday’s ceremony, saying that they were "deeply saddened" and "bereft" after watching Patrick Swayze, Natasha Richards, Brittany Murphy and others remembered during a performance by James Taylor.
Hollywood icon Jane Fonda led a raft of critics in expressing their disappointment on the social networking site Twitter: “Where was Farah Fawcett?” Fonda wrote. “She should have been included”. The influential, veteran US film critic Roger Ebert tweeted: “No Farrah Fawcett in the memorial tribute? Major fail.”
The Academy’s decision to include Michael Jackson while excluding Fawcett has further fuelled the criticism, but Davis said organisers honoured the King of Pop as he had appeared in a popular theatrical film, This Is It, recently.
"Think of all the blogging we would have gotten if we had left him out!" he said. Fawcett, who starred in a string of films, including Dr T and the Women and Logan's Run, was not the only one left out of the segment. Actor Gene Barry, who starred in the original sci-fi classic The War of the Worlds, was also excluded.
Davis said that "an unusual number of extremely distinguished screenwriters" died this year, and the academy tried to honour many of them in the short time allowed. "There's nothing you can say to people, particularly to family members, within a day or two of the show that helps at all. They tend to be surprised and hurt, and we understand that and we're sorry for it."
0 comments:
Post a Comment