By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --The executive director of the film academy said Tuesday that Farrah Fawcett wasn’t included in the Academy Awards’ In Memoriam segment because the actress was better known as a TV star.
It was a difficult decision for the committee that assembles the segment to omit Fawcett, said Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences executive director Bruce Davis, who added that he’s not surprised some fans and family members are upset.
Fawcett’s family issued a statement through a publicist Tuesday saying they were “deeply saddened” and “bereft with this exclusion of such an international icon who inspired so many for so many reasons.”
Davis said the academy committee “was kind of figuring that probably the Farrah Fawcett and Gene Barry omissions would be the ones we’d get the most comments on.” He acknowledged that he “did get one letter about Miss Fawcett.”
After much discussion by the committee, Fawcett and Barry were both omitted from the necrology sequence. Davis and his colleagues thought that while the two actors appeared in movies, they were better known for their “remarkable television work” and would be more appropriately honored by the television academy at the Emmy Awards.
Davis said “an unusual number of extremely distinguished screenwriters” died this year, and the academy tried to honor many of them in the short memorial segment.
“In every category, you’re going to miss some wonderful people,” said Davis, who has helped assemble Oscar’s In Memoriam montage since it began in 1993.
When asked why Michael Jackson was included when actors were left out, Davis explained that Jackson had appeared in a popular theatrical film recently. Fawcett and Jackson both died on June 25.
“Think of all the blogging we would have gotten if we had left him out!” he said.
Still, he said he understands that the Fawcett and Barry omissions sting.
“There’s nothing you can say to people, particularly to family members, within a day or two of the show that helps at all,” Davis said. “They tend to be surprised and hurt, and we understand that and we’re sorry for it.”
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More