Since they did look alike and die of similar causes, couldn't the Academy have just edited it to read "Heath Ledger/Brad Renfro - viewer choice"

Little Mintz Sunshine

@KNau: They could have at least paid tribute to the truckloads of babies those agents had to consume to achieve their high levels of status.

nick_r

i know there's some sort of time line for deaths that make the montage, but not having roy scheider was embarrassing. it's called editing!

derby

But they included AGENTS in the In Memoriam segment and those aren't even...you know...real people!

KNau

As I recall, the biggest scandal was that Ingmar Bergman was squeezed in between a makeup artist and a set designer and his picture was shown for all of two seconds, while "executives" (and this seemed a bad year for Hollywood bigwigs) were given more airtime during the dead movie people montage. I don't even think most people noticed Ingmar Bergman was in that montage at all. Does the Academy have some beef with this man? He should have been the centerpiece of the montage, not Heath Ledger or Jack Valenti.

Jezebabe

First "Redfro" and now this.

NotReadyForPrimeTime

Meh, I'm sure Brad gives a mad shit even in the afterlife. = /

Benovite

re: Roy Scheider. The dates for inclusion were 01 February 2007 to 31 January 2008. Roy passed away on 10 February 2008, so he'll be in the next Oscar dead montage.

formerfilmstudent

Also, no Adrianne Shelley??? WTF???

jimbosil

Oi, most amateur Oscars ever.

SanFranBetsu

They need to do away with this segment if they're going to make it selective and ridiculously wrong. I liked that they included industry people that the world-at-large may not recognize, but dissing people like Renfro and using the least attractive moment onscreen of Ennis Del Mar just screams amateur hour.

PaisleyPajamas

All though Hollywood is packed to the gills with those of the Hebrew persuasion, when you get right down to it, the city was built by and is run by Phillistines.

Cacafuego

@KNau: And executives, which I never recall seeing in there before. I assumed it was a "slow dead year" so they put them in. To be honest, I did not even notice the lack of Renfro or CNR.

MercuryPDX

lack of renfro was the thing i noticed, so after the show i went immediately to the defamer liveblog comments to make sure i hadn't imagined it or missed something, as it seemed like a pretty glaring omission. even if he was having a rough patch called life, dude still had youth, former child stardom and indie cred. wtf.

metalkate

Despite all the interminable, self-congratulatory talk about "celebrating the art of motion pictures", the Oscars are first and foremost a tribute to itself. No one should be surprised that folks like Jack Valenti are honored above and beyond people like Brad Renfro or why a show that claims to care so much about time that they prevent winners from speaking but will show an hour of clips celebrating itself. To the folks who run the Oscars, Brad Renfro is a pitiful young punk nobody. Valenti? He was a beloved friend and colleague.

sebast

Man, that is bizarre, especially considering how many execs and other suits they squeezed into the montage instead.

Oh, and @jimbosil: Shelley died in '06, so that's not as strange.

buttler

@jimbosil: I suspect the murder angle was too much of a downer... or they just forgot her.

OldTowneTavern

I was annoyed they ended on Heath Ledger. Yes it was sad he died and he should have been included, but the end spot should have gone to Ingmar Bergman who had a far bigger influence on films than Ledger did.

CamilleR

Charles Nelson Reilly was ommitted on purpose ...
they left him: ____BLANK______ (cue Match Game music)

NoGrumpys