Skip to main content

New! You can personalise your feed. Try it now

Advertisement

Advertisement

Mira Sorvino slams Oscars for omitting dad Paul Sorvino from In Memoriam tribute: “Baffling beyond belief”

This is the part where the Oscars get criticised almost every year. 

It’s now become an Oscars tradition: the show will invariably mess up the ‘In Memoriam’ segment.

And Mira Sorvino is really, really, really pissed off with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the folks behind the Oscars —  had left out her father, Goodfellas star Paul Sorvino, from the ‘In Memoriam’ montage on Sunday’s (Mar 12) live telecast.

“I for one am remembering Dad on this Oscars night...” said Sorvino via Twitter on Sunday. She also included a clip from her Instagram from the 1996 Oscars where she caused her father to burst into tears when she thanked him in her acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for Mighty Aphrodite.

On the Instagram post, Sorvino wrote, “I love you Dad. I miss you so much. PS, when I posted this I had not learned of my Dad’s omission and that of several other incredible artists from the in Memoriam section.

“Incredibly hurt and shocked that my father’s lifelong, irreplaceable, enormous contribution to the world of cinema was overlooked by whomever made that list. We, his adoring family, and you, his adoring public, know just how unique and incredible he was. We hope the Academy does something to put this right.”

On Monday, Sorvino went ballistic with another tweet. “It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out," she wrote. "The Oscars forgot about Paul Sorvino, but the rest of us never will!!”

The late actor’s widow Dee Dee Sorvino, too, wasn’t pleased with the omission.

“Paul Sorvino was one of the greatest actors in cinematic history in Hollywood,” she said in a statement shared with Entertainment Weekly. “It is unconscionable that he would be left out of the ‘In Memoriam’ segment of the Oscars. It’s a three-hour show, they can’t give a couple more minutes to get it right? Paul Sorvino gave decades to this industry and was loved by all.”

Other exclusions from this year’s reel included Anne Heche, Leslie Jordan, Lisa Marie Presley and Tom Sizemore.  A QR code was included in the live awards ceremony to guide viewers to a more complete list online.

“Paul was not the only deserving soul left out, and a QR code is not acceptable,” Dee Dee added. “The Academy needs to issue an apology, admit the mistake and do better.”

Paul Sorvino died on July 25 last year at the age of 83. Besides Goodfellas, he was also known for his roles in The Rocketeer, Nixon and The Cooler.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter after the Oscars cast, the show’s executive producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner, said they had no say in selecting the people to be featured in the segment.

“We’re not involved in those decisions,” said Kirshner.

“We crafted the performative element of it, but there’s actually a group at the Academy meets and discusses who to include,” Weiss explained.

An Academy spokesperson said (via THR), that group overseeing the ‘In Memoriam’ segment is made up of a representative from each of the organisation’s 17 branches, and that names that are more familiar to audiences cannot be included because all branches are entitled to representation during the limited time allotted for the segment.    

Watch the ‘In Memoriam’ segment from The Oscars 95 Awards Show here.

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos

Related topics

Hollywood Oscars 2023 Mira Sorvino Paul Sorvino In Memoriam

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.