During the recent Oscar ceremony, they had the In Memory section which gave moments of silence to the fallen stars of 2009. Some of the familiar faces we saw were Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson, and Brittany Murphy. Few big names they forgot were Bea Arthur of the Golden Girls, Ed McMahon, and Farrah Fawcett. I can understand that the Academy has to limit the search down, but some of these people should have been in it. Bea Arthur and Ed McMahon are questionable since they are more notable for tv. Farrah has done movies and had an amazing documentary during her death.

Ryan O’Neil stated that Farrah’s omission “a terrible decision” and “very hurtful.” Fawcett was after all a long time member of the Academy. Here is O’Neil’s interview with Radar Online:

“It was a terrible decision and very hurtful,” O’Neal said. “Farrah was a member of the Academy for over 40 years and we could not believe she did not get a mention.” Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson and Brittany Murphy were included in the segment.

O’Neal also revealed that he and daughter Tatum O’Neal- who watched the ceremony together- intend to write a letter of protest.

“Both Tatum and I were very upset and we intend to write a letter to the Academy to try and get an explanation for this oversight on their behalf.”

RadarOnline.com spoke to Lesle Unger, a rep for the Academy, shortly after the awards ended. She explained that “there are many angles that are looked at as to who to include and unfortunately we don’t include everyone.”

Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said days before that the segment was the most difficult to produce since they had to whittle over a hundred names down to around thirty.

O’Neal scoffed at the notion that Fawcett would not make that final cut: “They gave mentions to sound guys and other writers and without being disrespectful, Farrah Fawcett was an icon and a household name.

“Quite frankly, we were stunned at the decision not to include her in the tribute and I feel that the Academy should be scolded for that, everyone was shocked.”

Many celebrities were surprised that Fawcett was omitted from the memorial tribute. Stars believe that the Academy will never apologize for their mistake.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 10:37 am and is filed under Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.