Heath Ledger's video memorial was, of course, the final and most loudly applauded of the memorials included in the 'In Memoriam' tribute at last night's Oscars - but who was snubbed?
Well, that depends upon how you define 'snubbed.' Is it a snub for some featured memorials to receive no or little applause when others are loudly applauded and cheered? If so, most of the memorials in last night's Oscar tribute to Hollywood's dead were snubbed: the only significant reaction from the audience came for Ingmar Bergman and, as expected, Heath Ledger. Most others received little or no reaction. That guy who did some sort of make-up or effects work for Jurassic Park? Crickets. Which, you know, has gotta suck for those poor, dead Members of the Academy watching from Heaven or Hell or Living-On-Residuals Purgatory or wherever they are. You get the honor of a memorial at the Oscars and the audience of your peers just sits on their hands? Brutal.
Still, it's worse to be forgotten entirely. Robert Goulet was left out of the montage entirely (I know - who? That's my point.) More notably: Brad Renfro. His memory wasn't honored. Wasn't he one of Hollywood's great bright hopes just a few years back? A handsome young man who starred alongside the likes of Susan Sarandon, Sir Ian McKellen, and Robert de Niro? Why wasn't his death memorialized?
(And don't get me started on the exclusion of Anna Nicole Smith. Appearances in The Naked Gun IV aren't enough to get you in alongside some stunt guy from those Chuck Norris movies? Puh-leeze.)
Is there anything worse than to be considered D-list dead? To be out-died by random make-up artists and stunt guys with better publicists than you? Hollywood sucks.
