2015 Oscars explain Joan Rivers – ‘In Memoriam’ omission

Back when we first wrote about the In Memoriam segment during our Academy Awards telecast on Sunday night, one of the first things that we admitted was that it would be almost completely impossible for the ABC special to actually please everyone. Someone is always going to be forgotten.

With that being said, not including Joan Rivers is a pretty huge omission, given what she’s done not only for movies, but also what she’s done for the Oscars as a red-carpet destination. Before her, was there a red-carpet special quite like we see today? She was a revelation, and a huge part of what made awards-show fashion such a big deal. If you want to go by her film resume, then you can look at everything from a memorable part in “Spaceballs” to her underrated documentary “A Piece of Work” that chronicled many facets of who she is.

There was enough outrage at her omission that the Academy actually did issue a statement, but it really does not do much to explain this away. Take a look at this below, via The Hollywood Reporter:

“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.”

Is there a way ultimately to revamp this segment of the show? Maybe you need to in order to either extend the montage, eliminate the performance aspect, or find a way to combine the two. The Academy obviously wants to ensure that a variety of different people are remembered, and not just the big-name actors or directors. However, in leaving certain names out you create a distraction, and now everyone is talking more about Joan than they are the people who were honored.

Have a solution? We want to hear in the comments.