Oscars Criticized For Its 'In Memorium' Segment For Not Including Luke Perry

The Oscars have yet again become the target of criticism for its 3-minute long televised tribute to late artists who departed in the last year or so. The 92nd Academy Awards while featuring Kobe Bryant and Kirk Douglas, gave a miss to many other beloved actors, of which the most prominent was the absence of the “Beverly Hill’s” star Luke Perry.

When the Oscars took off on Sunday, the roughly 3-minute segment consisted of a montage of 59 late artists while singer Billie Eilish performed "Yesterday" by the Beatles, paying homage to the actors, writers and behind-the-scenes crew members who passed away. While everyone was moved by the memorium, the absence of Luke Perry and Cameron Boyce was hard to miss.

But this is not the first time that the Academy Awards has been questioned for the segment as last year too, they omitted actress Carol Channing, "Singin' in the Rain" director Stanley Donen and many others from the tribute.

Luke Perry's exclusion is all that glaring as even appeared in the Oscar-nominated film, "Once Upon a time... in Hollywood”. The actor died in March 2019, following a stroke, at the age of 52.

After the massive criticism over the omission, the Academy released a statement explaining how it makes the decision for who gets to be in the “In Memorium” montage during the Oscars.

"The Academy receives hundreds of requests to include loved ones and industry colleagues in the Oscars In Memoriam segment," the statement read. "An executive committee representing every branch considers the list and makes selections for the telecast based on limited available time. All the submissions are included on Oscar.com and will remain on the site throughout the year. Luke Perry and Cameron Boyce are remembered in the Oscar.com gallery."

Thus, the Oscars In Memoriam section on the organization's website carries the picture of Perry and more than 100 others. Former NBA star and Oscar winner Kobe Bryant was also featured in the montage. He was killed in a helicopter crash two weeks ago, along with his daughter and seven others. The montage also carried the picture of actor Kirk Douglas who died just days before the 92nd Academy Awards.