Mira Sorvino Reacts in Shock After Oscars 2023 Omitted Dad Paul Sorvino From 'In Memoriam'
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Mira Sorvino Reacts in Shock After Oscars 2023 Omitted Dad Paul Sorvino From 'In Memoriam'
“It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out,” she wrote.
Mira and Paul Sorvino attends 2013 Giffoni Film Festival photocall on July 20, 2013 in Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy. (Photo by Stefania D'Alessandro/Getty Images)
Oscar-winning actress, Mira Sorvino's father, Paul Sorvino was not shown in the televised and emotional In Memoriam segment at the 95th annual Academy Awards on March 12, 2023. The segment featured a moving piano performance by Lenny Kravitz of Travolta's song Calling All Angels. The segment honored late stars such as Ray Liotta, Angela Lansbury, James Caan, Raquel Welch, Kirstie Alley, Robbie Coltrane, Louise Fletcher, Burt Bacharach, and more. But actor Paul Sorvino was not shown in the tribute.
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Actor Paul Sorvino poses at the after-party for the premiere of Touchstone Pictures' "Mr. 3000" at The Highlands on September 8, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out,” Sorvino wrote in a tweet on Monday. “The Oscars forgot about Paul Sorvino, but the rest of us never will!!” Paul Sorvino, who starred in films including Goodfellas died in July 2022 from natural causes at age 83. According to People, a gallery featuring more late film industry professionals is available online which was promoted at the end of the segment with a QR code. The scannable code was shown onscreen during the broadcast directing viewers to the extended tributes.
It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out. The Oscars forgot about Paul Sorvino, but the rest of us never will!! https://t.co/dbgcfb1qy3 via @forthewin
"Paul Sorvino was one of the greatest actors in cinematic history in Hollywood. It is unconscionable that he would be left out of the In Memoriam segment of the Oscars," Sorvino's widow Dee Dee said in a statement on Monday. "It's a three-hour show, they can't give a couple more minutes to get it right? Paul Sorvino gave decades to this industry and was loved by all." She added, "Paul was not the only deserving soul left out, and a QR Code is not acceptable. The Academy needs to issue an apology, admit the mistake and do better. Paul Sorvino deserves better, the audience deserves better. Is the Academy so jaded they forget people who are loved, who have given their hearts to this industry?" "Shame on the Academy if this is not corrected," she continued. "Mistakes are made, this was a big one. Please do something to make it right."
Dee Dee Sorvino and Paul Sorvino attend Kentucky Derby 144 on May 5, 2018, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Churchill Downs)
Ahead of Sunday’s event, Mira paid tribute to her father remembering her own Oscar win in 1996 for Mighty Aphrodite. "On this Oscars night I am so happy for all of the nominees and the winners, but I am also moved in a thousand different ways when I think of the night I got to share my Academy Award with my Dad, the very great actor Paul Sorvino, who was never nominated," she wrote on Instagram. Getting to share her win with her father at the time, her “first and best teacher” was special because she got to “give back to him" what he had been giving her all her life—"love and belief and admiration and gratitude.” "On this first year after his passing, it is truly a bittersweet but beautiful memory. I love you Dad, I miss you so much," the post continued.
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According to Variety, several names were also not mentioned during the In Memoriam segment at the Oscars including Leslie Jordan, Gilbert Gottfried, Tom Sizemore, and Cindy Williams. Fans wondered why Anne Heche, Triangle of Sadness star Charlbi Dean and Paul Sorvino were not mentioned either but they were memorialized on the Oscars website.
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Mira Sorvino (R) kisses her father Paul Sorvino after his serenade at the Capitol File holiday issue party on November 27, 2007, at The Park at Fourteenth, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Nancy Ostertag/Getty Images)
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