Oscars “In Memoriam” The Day After

It’s the day after the Oscars and, of course, people are bitching  about the ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder sung  Tom Petty’s “Room At The Top” in his baleful moan (which probably left those in the Kodak Theater and watching at home wish they could join the dead), as names, photos, and—in some cases—a short film clip—of members of the Hollywood community who died the past year paraded by. There were some notable omissions: Oscar-winners  Dorothy Malone and Glen Campbell were nowhere to be found; also missing were director (the original “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Poltergeist”) Tobe Hooper, actors Della Reese, Powers Boothe and, for any child of the 60s the unkindest cut, Adam West, the one true Batman.

Those of us here at the Obitmagazine niche were just as troubled by the treatment of Jeanne Moreau. The French actress worked with directors such as François Truffaut (“Jules et Jim,” where her intelligence and sensuality caused many a film student to swoon), Michelangelo Antonioni (“La Notte”), Orson Welles (“Chimes At Midnight,” “The Trial”), and Rainier Werner Fassbinder (“Querelle,” based on a novel by her friend, Jean Genet). She also found success as a singer (performing with Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall), writer, producer, and director. She was included, but it took a sharp eye, as when her name was on the screen, the camera was panning to get a look at Vedder, emoting so hard we we think he was trying to contract the dead. Jeanne Moreau deserved better.

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.

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