Last Night's Biggest Oscars Snub Had Nothing to Do With the Nominees

By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | February 23, 2015 |

By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | February 23, 2015 |

Every year, the Academy seems to leave a couple important names off of their In Memoriam segment (aka The Point In the Night When We All Weep Uncontrollably Over Weird and Now Poorly Muted Applause). And of course, they have to. There’s only so much time, and so many people who contribute to the film industry, there’s always going to be someone we wish had been included, but wasn’t. Last night, though, there were a few fairly shocking omissions. First off, Joan Rivers, who did mostly television work, which is a valid reason for not including her. Except that she did also work in film (this is Dot Fucking Matrix, people), and OH YEAH, also worked the Oscars’ red carpet for twenty years. She basically made the red carpet segment what it is today, and got a lot of people who otherwise didn’t have a crap to give about the awards to tune in for her (often horribly offensive) snark.

The Academy released a statement today in an attempt to explain why Rivers wasn’t included in the segment. It says absolutely nothing.

Joan Rivers is among the many worthy artists and filmmakers we were unfortunately unable to feature in the In Memoriam segment of this year’s Oscar show. She is, however, included in our In Memoriam gallery on Oscar.com.

Another face left out was that of Elaine Stritch. Stritch, like Rivers, did mostly television (or, really, mostly theatre), but she was in no way absent from film. She’s been working in film her entire career— A Farewell to Arms, Small Time Crooks, and her absolutely incredible documentary Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, just to name a few. Plus, you know, just being a goddamn entertainment industry legend. But we get it, Elaine Stritch is among the many worthy artists and filmmakers we were unfortunately unable to blah blah fuckity blah. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of Elaine Stritch being amazing.