While the late 'Fashion Police' star was not mentioned during the ceremony, she is included in the 'In Memoriam' section on the Oscar official website.
- February 23, 2015
AceShowbiz -
The Academy addresses the exclusion of Joan Rivers from "In Memoriam" segment at the Sunday Oscars that sparked criticism from fans. Although the late "Fashion Police" star was mostly known for her standup and TV works, she actually had roles in movies like "The Muppets Take Manhattan", "The Smurfs", and "Shrek 2".
"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," a representative for the Academy Awards explains in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. "She is, however, included in our In Memoriam gallery on Oscar.com."
Earlier, Joan's only daughter Melissa Rivers paid tribute to her mother at the prestigious event. She stated during E!'s LRC Countdown Show, "It's hard to believe it was twenty years ago that my mother and I stood on this very red carpet for the first time. My mom asked questions that nobody else dared to ask."
Joan Rivers who died last year at 81 was also omitted from "In Memoriam" segment at the Grammy Awards two weeks ago despite posthumously winning the best spoken word album. "No disrespect [was meant] at all," Producer Ken Ehrlich said. "I think it was just that her Grammy involvement was certainly less than Robin's," referring to Robin Williams's four Grammy wins which led him to be included in the memoriam. He added, "There's only so much we can do, and we have to make hard choices when it comes to things like that."
