The memoriam segment honors deceased members of the Academy. Rivers was never a member.
“The memoriam segment honors deceased members of the Academy. Rivers was never a member.”
Was Maya Angelou? She was recognized.
What year did NAZI propagandist Leni Riefenstahl join the Academy?
http://articles.latimes.com/2004/mar/08/entertainment/et-counterpunch8
Shaking his head over Oscar nod to Nazi auteur
March 08, 2004|Doug McIntyre
“She [Riefenstahl] was there because she was an artist and she’s gone. She had a greatness to her and she had amazing longevity.” So said producer Sid Ganis, a vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in the New York Daily News. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer was more specific: “She was a genius, and her movies were innovative and still copied today.... When I was making commercials years ago, I remember one where the director stole directly from ‘Triumph of the Will.’ “ And Sir Elton John said it for the ages: “Yes, Hitler was evil [but] ... she was a great filmmaker, and as an artist myself, I think she deserved to be there.”
...The academy can’t acknowledge everyone who dies in a given year. The names of more than 400 notables, I’m told, were submitted to the academy for inclusion in the “In Memoriam” tribute. Ganis’ comment to the New York Daily News is telling: “There was no special debate whatsoever in the decision to include her on the list.”