The Hot Blog

Agreed about Fawcett and Michael Jackson, but Henry Gibson (also left out) belongs in front of all those names you mentioned. A lot of people may not know the name, but the face is definitely widely-recognized.

Another travesty.

I thought he was in. Yes, leaving Henry Gibson out, who was on TV, but also was a key member of the Altman family - not to mention The Blues Bros and the brief, but brilliant turn in Magnolia - would be the stupidest of the missteps.

Several years back, they left out Kathleen Freeman. She portrayed several iconic characters that people remember today.

Of course, the Academy can't include everyone, but by including Michael Jackson, it shot itself in the foot by not including Farrah.

Of course they can include everybody. There's no great editors in Hollywood that want to put together a crack tribute montage with apropos music? This is a no-brainer.

If they'd included Zakes Mokae, they should've used a clip of him castrating Bill Pullman in The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Little close to the ceremony, but I believe they also forgot Lionel Jeffries who had a very distinguished career.

I dunno. She was also pretty good in THE APOSTLE. And EXTREMITIES, although ham-handed, was a seminal film for many women I've talked to - one said THELMA AND LOUISE was "EXTREMITIES-lite." So I think you're a little quick to write off her work. Did she deserve a spot? I say yes - certainly more than Marc Rocco.

Turning this into a MJ vs. Farrah battle of "worthiness" misses the point completely. The Academy fucked up, pure and simple, and the offence was compounded by a) its spokeswoman's dismissive, insensitive rebuttal and b) the hamfisted aesthetic choice these last two years to upstage the people being memorialized with a live performer. A mere sixty extra seconds of screen time would have covered all the people left out, and keeping the camera trained on the departed instead of on James Taylor would have allowed proper respect to be paid to Jennifer Jones, Maurice Jarre and the rest who did make the seemingly very arbitrary cut.

They could have at least included Jackson performing "Ben". That's movie-related, at least. But neither of them shoulda be included. Same goes for Bea Arthur. I love that woman, but what was she for cinema?

Dave, I loved your inclusion of Bud Tingwell. His last role was in Matthew Newton's Three Blind Mice, the best film of 2009. Go watch it.

Let's not forget Henry Gibson's Dr. Klopek.

I think it's pretty tasteless to compare people like in this way for this type of a segment. This is one time when the Academy should act like an Academy and simply recognize people who were their colegues not for their greatness or other subjective criterias but simply as human beings. As it is it just seems like another way of trying to make the ceremony shorter.

And here you are readily offering up replacements. Your list of six? What is this an extension of one of your awards columns? It's not a competition, Poland, and your justifications (valid as though they may seem to you) are not really justificiations at all and happen to be in very poor taste. It was sad to read because it completely unnecessary.

And where do you get off on making such calls on somebody else's life:
"all more so than Farrah Fawcett"
"He may never be as famous as Fawcett, but his work will live forever. Her's will not."???

And why? That's some strong stuff there. It's just a stupid controversy and your competely unnecessary comments are ten times worse then what the Academy did or didn't do.
There is a reason why it's considered to be a taboo to say things of this nature and that's because it's a pathetic thing to do. And that's exactly what you are being right now.

That's my personal opinion.

James Whitmore, Gene Barry, Edward Woodward, Richard Todd (a Best Actor nominee)...meanwhile, they gave 6 or 7 minutes to John Hughes, whose career lasted less than a decade.

It's not so much comparing in terms of cinematic relevance, but if you're going to exclude Farrah Fawcett because she didn't have enough films, then why include Michael Jackson? Or Aaliyah? That woman was one of the greatest singers of modern times, but she made two shitty movies and somehow got into the in memoriam over - and I hope I'm remembering this correctly - Peggy Lee, whose family chucked up a stink, who much like MJ wasn't much of an actor, but at least had an Oscar nomination to her name.

It's the inconsistency that people are annoyed at I think, not the particulars.

if you consider music videos mini movies, then Mike Jackson deserved to be there, but i dont really want to get into it cause then we are actually elevating the oscars to a higher plataeu than they deserve.

I mean, the Oscars should be so lucky to have MJ associated with them. Lets not start acting like the Oscars and Movies are too good for certain people, i mean, 9 out of 10 people on the planet have no idea who any of these film people are anyways.

Aaliyah made terrific music, Timbaland and Missy Elliott were at their peaks when they wrote and produced for her, and that black/Asian action film movement that Rush Hour kick started for a time, lead the way for Romeo Must Die, which i loved. Sure it aint Shakespare but it was fun, and she showed in that movie the type of potential she had. Big loss. I think she was going 2 be in the Matrix Sequels as well.

That last Farrah movie mentioned up top should be "Dr. T and the Women."

One thousand and one, one thousand and two.

-DONE-

That's all they really had to do to include Fawcett, and Mokae, and Gibson, and Woodward, etc. It didn't have to be world record breaking amount of time. Just a couple of seconds each to put their names and faces up in the montage to show A TIP OF THE HAT AT THE LEAST.

But no, we gotta look at somebody unnecesary who isn't even dead yet singing and playing guitar.

People wonder why they can't get this show right when no-brainer segments like the In Memorium montage goes off the rails year after year? Really?

As I've said before, this debate is totally pointless. If the Academy can have people like Tyler Perry and Miley Cirus presenter awards they better fucking well recognize people like Farrah Fawcett.

For my money, Farrah's best performance was in Small Sacrifices, playing a flamboyant, emotionally disconnected mother who shot her children because the man she loved didn't want any more kids in his life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTd9op9Je9c

And of course she actually starred with Oscar winer Jeff Bridges in SOMEBODY KILLED HER HUSBAND. That might have been a nice clip. Fail, Poland!

"if you consider music videos mini movies, then Mike Jackson deserved to be there, but i dont really want to get into it cause then we are actually elevating the oscars to a higher plataeu than they deserve.

I mean, the Oscars should be so lucky to have MJ associated with them. Lets not start acting like the Oscars and Movies are too good for certain people, i mean, 9 out of 10 people on the planet have no idea who any of these film people are anyways."

I sure as hell don't consider them mini movies. Not any more than I consider an episode of television to be the same thing. Does anyone? MTV has their own awards show for that crap.

And the fact that you have such contempt for the Academy and are trumpeting the empty, sugary pop of Michael Jackson (not to mention music videos in general) as being more important than the films they celebrate...I don't even know what to say to that. Jackson was a freak show and we should be thanking the heavens we never had to bear witness to his planned Edgar Allan Poe biopic.

"As I've said before, this debate is totally pointless. If the Academy can have people like Tyler Perry and Miley Cirus presenter awards they better fucking well recognize people like Farrah Fawcett."

Why not Tyler Perry? Whatever you think of his work, he at least writes, directs, produces and stars in movies that have been hits for a few years running. Cyrus was just a flailing lurch at the teen demographic.

"And of course she actually starred with Oscar winer Jeff Bridges in SOMEBODY KILLED HER HUSBAND."

She actually starred with Bridges a second time, as well - See You in the Morning.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: