At our Oscar party last night a few people brought up the lack of Brad Renfro in the In Memoriam montage, I assumed that it was an unfortunate mistake on their part; but that doesn’t seem to be the case. We get the scoop from our friends at TMZ (thanks to Kristina for the hookup)
So in case you missed it, Brad Renfro was ignored during the “in memoriam” montage on the Oscars last night. You’re not gonna believe the statement the Academy gave TMZ. The tape featured 50 movie types who died in the last year. They included actors, studio execs, makeup artists, agents, and on and on. Renfro was nowhere to be seen. We asked the Academy why and they gave us the following statement: “It is simply not possible to include everyone in that segment.”
Interesting. Renfro, whose credits include “The Client,” “Apt Pupil” and “Sleepers,” seems like a bigger player than Margaret Gardner, the head of the international division of a P.R. firm.
Yesterday people were calling out “Bullshit” when Renfro was absent from the montage. I actually thought it was a mistake and thought that they would make it up to the family by including him in next year’s broadcast. We now know that this will not happen, and I think it is unfortunate. The in memoriam montage is one that can run a little long and based on the response circling round the web, the exclusion of Renfro was a mistake.
I am not certain how many movie industry deaths occur each year, but I would prefer an all or nothing approach. International friends, were you upset about the exclusion of Brad Renfro, and do you think the Academy had a valid excuse?
