Last night’s controversial omission of comedian Joan Rivers from the “In Memoriam” section of the Oscars has been swiftly addressed by the Academy, in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
It reads: “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.”
Though the Academy found room to mention the likes of Gabriel Marcia Márquez and Maya Angelou, alongside more expected industry figures such as Mickey Rooney, Robin Williams and Lauren Bacall, Rivers – who died on 4 September last year – was left out.
Although her best known work was for TV – notably the Fashion Police TV series for E! – Rivers appeared in a number of films including John Waters’ Serial Mom, the Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer and The Muppets Take Manhattan.
However, the Academy did acknowledge the British actor Bob Hoskins, star of The Long Good Friday and Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, who had been overlooked by the Bafta film awards in the UK.
