Comments on: Gil Cates Apologizing To Whoopi, But...

By: Charlie

Charlie — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:54:52 +0000

Whoopi should have been included in the obit segment. Her career died years ago.

By: vio

vio — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:00:12 +0000

What about Anna Nicole Smith? She died on 2-8-2007 and made one great movie, and others. Brad Renfro was ripped off. I hate the academy.

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:37:33 +0000

Both Whoopi and Steve Martin will (God willing) be around next year, when hopefully someone at the Oscars will make it up to them. For all the many people left out of the “in memoriam” tribute, this was the only year in which they could be recognized. I feel like this talk of making amends to Whoopi (don’t get me wrong - I like her) is trivializing those no longer with us who should have mentioned. I’d love to see Whoopi put together an “in memoriam” to air on The View. That would be a very classy way to shed light on the others not mentioned.

And also, can we please get a new Oscar producer? Every year I hope he’ll get replaced, and every year he’s still there.

By: mensagig@yahoo.com

mensagig@yahoo.com — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:34:11 +0000

Let’s not forget that this show was put together in less than two weeks, with last-minute decisions on which clips and packages to use and which not. In other words, there were bound to be some f-ups. That being said, I agree with the comments that the show has grown old, stale and boring and - worst of all - entirely predictable. They do need to hire a new producer to put some zip back into the show, dust it off a bit.

By: shaun

shaun — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 20:06:03 +0000

I always look forward to the tribute…I agree that it is something that can run longer. The music (to me) seemed off for the segment this year plus with the omissions it ended up being a disappointment for me this year.

By: Unindicted Co-conspirator

Unindicted Co-conspirator — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:52:43 +0000

I doubt that this would have gotten any traction except for all the execs that got in the dead people tribute instead of actors.
And Charles Lane is unforgettable to all those who watched ‘Petticoat Junction’ years ago.
He was a terrific comic villain as Homer Bedloe,

By: milo

milo — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:11:04 +0000

With Whoopi whining after she was shown in one of the OTHER montages, she just comes off as a selfish crybaby.

I have to agree, this “controversy” is completely inane and I’m disappointed that anyone is even bothering to report it.

By: Francine Fishpaw

Francine Fishpaw — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:14:28 +0000

Hate to break it to you, Who Cares, but Renfro was in a lot more than 2 and a half movies. Check IMDB. He was in 25 movies and several of them were quite big and included such costars as Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger, Billy Bob Thornton, Keira Knightley, Adrien Brody, Scarlet Johansson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ian McKellen and Kevin Bacon. In fact, he’d just finished a movie days before his death (one with Oscar winners Basinger and Thornton).

So of course he should have been included. The fact that he did drugs being the excuse for his omission rings false considering Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose a week later but was in the montage.

Two accidental drug overdoses and one gets to be in the montage and the other doesn’t? Even though Renfro was in more movies than Ledger?

Something stinks.

By: manny

manny — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:09:00 +0000

Hey Who Cares, if Renfro was only in 2.5 movies*, I’d like to point out that 2 of those were nominated for Oscars (Ghost World & The Client) so I think it’s not outrageous to ask the people who lived off his blood, sweat & soul to give him .25 seconds in an f’n obit tribute. It’s the one thing every year people actually don’t mind going a bit long.
*which is more than Heath Ledger who was given the card of honor despite being in the same number of Oscar nominated films and fewer projects than Renfro

By: Who Cares

Who Cares — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:25:51 +0000

Hey AD,

I don’t really care what the “obnoxious set” is using for vocabulary these days, but thanks for keeping track. What’s obnoxious is that Whoopi Goldberg took this personally.

And my 6-line comment (thanks for counting) took all of 1 minute to write, so it wasn’t exactly a major part of my day. I commented because this “issue” has been covered by EVERYONE, and I cannot fathom why. And I do consider it whining, regardless of what you may call it.

Again, so many people sit there and whine about how there are too many clip segments, that the Oscars are too long, etc. etc., yet those same people now want to nitpick about who or what is included in those clips. It’s insanity.

By: new blood

new blood — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:46:05 +0000

As an aside to this, I think it’s clear that the Oscars program has grown stale and needs an infusion of new blood. Let’s get a new Producer in there and see what they can do.

By: Jessy S.

Jessy S. — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:44:05 +0000

Sid Ganis should be left out of this except for the hiring of Gil Cates which he did. It is Mr. Cates that deserves most of the blame for what happened Sunday. Mr. Cates is the one that shouldn’t be allowed to produce another ceremony. He is the one that decided to f**k the writers and create a Plan B ceremony that shouldn’t have been, but was still on the air despite the agreement.

By: sigh

sigh — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:10:10 +0000

They have to cut off the list at some point. Someone will always be upset about somebody being left out.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:47:14 +0000

Charles Lane had a 70 year movie career, appeared in hundreds of movies and countless television appearances in a career spanning from 1931 to a documentary on his life out later this year (”You Know The Face”).

Words can’t describe his career, one of the greatest in Hollywood history, and one of the great character actors–period. Let his IMDB entry speak for itself:

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0485272/

If Charles Lane can’t get 5-10 seconds in a tribute honouring the greats from the film industry who left us this past year, who can?

He was 102 years old–most likely he probably would have laughed about all this as he was the exact opposite to the types of characters he played through his film career–but not those who remember his work.

A reference to such an omission at the end of the documentary on his life, now in post production, would make an ironic end to that film — Charles Lane was also one of the founders of the Screen Actors Guild and it’s oldest member.

By: Dany

Dany — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:25:30 +0000

My 11 year old son noticed that Alice Ghostley was left out of the ‘In Memoriam’ clip. “To Kill a Mockingbird” earned 4 Nominations and won 2 Oscars. Why were so many Agents, Studio Execs and Producers remembered while so many were not? One guess, Mr. Sid Ganis. He spent his years as a ‘behind the scenes’ marketing exec and now he’d rather be a shill for the studio paper-pushers than honor the true stars. How sad that an 11 year old boy knows better.