“I can’t believe my beloved father was left out”

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This year’s Oscars were largely scandal-free: no wrong winners were chosen (like in 2016’s “Moonlight” and “La La Land” debacle) and there was no slap in the face Will Smith like last year. A critical point of the evening, however, was the in-memoriam montage; a short slideshow accompanied by pictures honoring all the important deceased from the film industry of the year.

Mira Sorvino publicly criticized the “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences” on Twitter after her father – the well-known actor Paul Sorvino, who starred in “Law & Order” and “GoodFellas” among others – was not mentioned during the montage. The actress, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1995 for the film Beloved Aphrodite, wrote in her post a day after the award ceremony: “It’s unbelievable that my beloved father and many other amazing, brilliant… , deceased actors were left out. The Oscars forgot Paul Sorvino but the rest of us never will!!!” She added, “Personally, I’m thinking of Dad this Oscars night…”

And not only Paul Sorvino was left out of the image montage: the actresses Anne Heche and Charlbi Dean were also not mentioned in the sequence. The absurd thing about it: Charlbi Dean was seen as one of the leading roles in “Triangle of Sadness”, which was nominated for “Best Picture” at this year’s Oscars. The in-memoryam montage ended with a QR code that took viewers to a website that listed more deceased people than were shown on TV. Paul Sorvino’s widow, Dee Dee Sorvino, said: “Paul wasn’t the only one who didn’t deserve it and a QR code isn’t acceptable. The Academy needs to apologize, admit the mistake and do better. Paul Sorvino deserved better, the audience deserved better.”

Deaths in recent months include Olivia Newton-John, Angela Lansbury, Ray Liotta, Jean-Luc Godard, Irene Cara, Kirstie Alley, Raquel Welch, Nichelle Nichols, Burt Bacharach and Vangelis. Their images, along with about 200 others, were featured in Sunday’s John Travolta-hosted “In Memoriam” segment, which was accompanied by a live performance by Lenny Kravitz playing the song “Calling All Angels.” Watch a video of the segment here:



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