Oscars 2010: Farrah Fawcett Snub Disappoints Fans

The film industry is still shocked by the Academy making what is billed as one of the biggest faux pas of recent times, with forgetting to include late “Charlie’s Angels” star Farrah Fawcett in the yearly In Memorian segment. Ryan O’Neal, longtime partner of the actress, is equally stunned and disappointed, as he tells People magazine in a statement just released.

Each year, the Academy presents footage with the actors who are no longer among us and to whom the industry is indebted for their work. This year, the stars included were Brittany Murphy, Patrick Swayze, Ron Silver and Michael Jackson. Notably absent were Farrah Fawcett and Bea Arthur, an oversight the Academy should not have done and for which it’s getting serious heat from the media and the fan community.

“Farrah Fawcett’s longtime partner, Ryan O’Neal, has joined other Hollywood figures including Jane Fonda and Roger Ebert in expressing dismay that Fawcett was left out of the ‘In Memoriam’ segment of Sunday’s Academy Awards. ‘There is no comment other than we were disappointed that she was not included,’ a rep for O’Neal tells People. Fonda and Ebert both Tweeted about the snub during the broadcast. ‘No Farrah Fawcett in the memorial tribute? Major fail,’ Ebert wrote. ‘And where was Farrah Fawcett? She should have been included #oscars #FAIL,’ wrote Fonda,” People magazine says of the snub.

“The ‘In Memoriam’ portion of the broadcast features a montage of film-industry figures who have passed away in the previous year. Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences spokeswoman Leslie Unger says the segment can only honor so many people. ‘Every year it’s an unfortunate reality that we can’t include everybody,’ she [says],” the same publication further informs.

As Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis was saying shortly before the Oscars, coming up with the list of late stars that do make the cut in the Segment is almost an impossible feat without upsetting someone. Of the 100 people on it initially, Academy organizers narrow it down to 30 and then even less, “dropping people who the public knows” and making it very “awkward,” Davis explained back then.