Melissa Rivers and The Academy Respond After Joan Rivers' Oscar "Snub"

By SheSpeaksTeam Feb 24, 2015

Fans of the late Joan Rivers were both surprised and offended that the comic legend was not included in this year’s In Memoriam segment during the Oscars. Rivers and her daughter Melissa became famous for red carpet quips and entertaining celebrity interviews before the big show. Many fans tuned in just to hear what Rivers thought of the fashions that year.

Though Rivers was missing from the In Memoriam section, Giuliana Rancic and E! producer Melissa Rivers made sure to pay tribute during E!’s red carpet coverage. Rancic referred to Joan Rivers as a mentor and “dear friend” and Melissa reminisced about joining her mom on the red carpet in years past. Melissa said after a montage featuring red carpet antics with her mother, “It's hard to believe it was 20 years ago that my mother and I stood on this very red carpet for the first time. We didn't know that walking into a building [the red carpet] was turning into an event.”

ABC News reports about how since the Oscars both Melissa and the Academy has released statements regarding the “snub”. The Academy explains, “Joan Rivers is among the many worthy artists and filmmakers we were unfortunately unable to feature in the In Memoriam segment of this year's Oscar show. She is, however, included in our In Memoriam gallery on Oscar.com.”

Melissa, however was not pleased with the omission and felt her mother should have been included in the TV coverage. She wrote on Joan’s Facebook page, “It would have been nice, especially considering the impact she had on the awards season.” She adds, “But Cooper and I have been overwhelmed with support and love over my mom's passing and we choose to focus on that.”

Did you watch the Oscars?

What do you think about Joan Rivers not being included in the In Memoriam segment during the Oscars this year?

Make a Comment

Comments

by lorri1956 | santee, CA

Feb 25, 2015

I feel this was just so wrong. I remember a few years back I think Jack Klugman was excluded because they gave extra time for special honor to Glee star Cory Monteith. And that was just so ridiculous I know they say they can't include everyone. Here is an idea, leave out some of those stupid bit's and opening numbers and you will have plenty of time to include everyone! Joan Rivers might have not made many films, but she did write, produced and appear in some. Oh and those four hours of Red Carpet shows, those started with Joan. We still love and miss you Joan Rivers. RIP peace.

by msfriendly | MONROE, WI

Feb 25, 2015

Well said, Zoomie. I agree.

by Zoomie | New York, NY

Feb 24, 2015

I am okay with Joan being excluded from the In Memoriam segment because her work, which single-handedly went into making Oscarcast viewership the very big thing that it now is - was not really in film-making. True, her trademark kind of coverage created the genre of 'The Red Carpet' -but that's a TV classification. Joan Rivers (along with Giorgio Armani) is responsible for pushing supermodels off the cover of magazines in favor of starlets, and though this has impacted our culture, it is not connected to making a movie. Joan's brilliance touched humanity and touched several industries, but I don't think the Box Office was one of them.

More stories like this