I noticed pretty quickly during the Oscars that they left out one Mr. Brad Renfro from the In Memoriam section of their broadcast. Well, I just let it go as the fact that when Heath Ledger died it was an epic tragedy that was covered in-nauseating detail by every news outlet in existence but when Brad Renfro died, it was not really considered very important at all. I guess being an Award winning actor made you a better person than Renfro. I also understand that he is going to get more attention because people just liked him better than Renfro. Fine. I do understand that. But Renfro deserved to be in the In Memoriam segment. I would ignore it but then I read the Academy’s statement to TMZ.com about their slip.
“It is simply not possible to include everyone in that segment.”
Man, fuck that. As TMZ.com said, they included Margaret Gardner, the head of the international division of a P.R. firm.
Brad Renfro starred in The Client (which earned Susan Sarandon an Oscar nomination), Sleepers (which earned John Williams an Oscar nomination), Apt Pupil, Bully (which earned Larry Clark a Golden Lion nomination in Venice), and Ghost World (which was awarded a best adapted screenplay nomination). That list of movies tells me Renfro was not just someone who was not important enough to include in the montage.
I’ll do it since he was not important enough to the Academy:
Brad Renfro (1982-2008)