In another #Oscars stuff-up, the 'In Memoriam' segment confused Janet Patterson for living Jan Chapman: https://t.co/5geXz1ZzK0 pic.twitter.com/HW149s8yiv
— SBSMovies (@SBSMovies) February 27, 2017
Because the Best Picture mix up really was epic in proportion, another glaring gaffe went unnoticed by most until yesterday. During the In Memoriam montage, four-time Oscar nominated Australian costume designer Janet Patterson was memorialized, having passed away in October 2016. Unfortunately, when the time came to honor her, another woman was pictured in her place. Apparently, when putting together the montage, somebody used a photo of Australian film producer Jan Chapman instead of Janet. Poor Jan was devastated not just because she was stunned to see her image being memorialized but also because she and Janet were friends. And, apparently, Jan had anticipated the problem and asked for this to be double checked.
Leading Australian producer, Jan Chapman was “devastated” by another mistake in the Oscars telecast.
In addition to the best picture gaffe, during the show’s In Memoriam segment, a photo of a living woman was mistakenly used.
Janet Patterson, an Australian costume designer and four-time Oscar nominee (“The Piano,” “Portrait of a Lady,” “Oscar and Lucinda” and “Bright Star”) passed away in October 2015.
Her name and occupation were correct in the montage, but the photo used was of Jan Chapman, a still-living Australian film producer. Check out the erroneous image above.
“I was devastated by the use of my image in place of my great friend and long-time collaborator Janet Patterson. I had urged her agency to check any photograph which might be used and understand that they were told that the Academy had it covered. Janet was a great beauty and four-time Oscar nominee and it is very disappointing that the error was not picked up,” Chapman told Variety by email. “I am alive and well and an active producer.”Chapman is one of Australia’s best-known producers with credits including “Lantana,” “Holy Smoke,” and “The Last Days of Chez Nous.” She was married to director Philip Noyce in the 1970s.
To confuse matters further, Patterson and Chapman worked together on “The Piano.”
I can’t imagine what was going through Jan’s mind as she prepared herself for Janet’s name to appear only to be shocked to see herself on screen. For the record, here is a photo of the actual Janet Patterson and Jan:
#JanetPatterson, the tall brunette beauty shown here in the middle, is the accomplished costume designer who passed away in 2016 #Oscars pic.twitter.com/7JzKPngsHE
— Summer Brennan (@summerbrennan) February 27, 2017
Apparently Jan’s photo comes up in photo agency searches for Janet, which must be why Jan thought to press Janet’s agency to check any photo being used. You can see a more recent photo of Janet here, in which she and Jan do share a passing resemblance. There, of course, is little justification for this when the Academy was warned about the issue ahead of time. And it is downright shameful that the Academy has yet to issue an apology. I get that they are up to their elbows in fallout over robbing Moonlight from their moment but this was supposed to be honoring a noted Academy member’s life.
Of course, the In Memoriam always cause some controversy because of whom they choose to omit. Many are noting the absences of Garry Shandling, Florence Henderson, Robert Vaughn, Doris Roberts and Alexis Arquette.
Photo credit: WENN Photos, Getty Images and Twitter
The oscars have officially become a joke now
Stop it for a year or two
I think they should stop them permanently. There are enough awards shows as it is. Reading those anonymous voter ballots just shows how much of a joke the Oscars are (most of them don’t watch all the nominated films, or don’t even know what some of the categories mean?!)
#OscarsSoSlippin
Oh dear talk about amateur hour, and the fact that they still haven’t apologised is pretty p*ss poor…
Russian hack? Jokes aside, really horrid for the friend…
This section is honouring academy MEMBERS who have passed away, not every single famous person no matter how beloved or successful they happened to be, is a member of the academy.
It’s also annoying for someone like Patricia Arquette to perpetuate the falsehood that Alex was deliberately skipped when she herself as a member knows, or should know, the rules.
For this reason, people like Garry Shandling or Alan Rickman were excluded because they weren’t members.
Lak, I wasn’t aware of that, so maybe that’s why they missed Robert Vaughn. I’d assume Garry Shandling and Florence Henderson weren’t included because they were known for their tv work.
That is exactly why.
If they skip them during the Emmys, then my first thought will be that they were not members of that academy too, before throwing out accusations of incompetence.
It isn’t about being a member. Quite a few big names aren’t AMPAS members because they simply don’t want to be. Woody Allen isn’t because he hates awards, Viggo Mortensen turned membership down when it was offered after his first nomination. And Alan Rickman, who died in January 2016, was shown last year in the In Memoriam video.
It’s basically about prominent, respected film industry people. That’s not to say there aren’t politics involved but they leave people out all the time who didn’t have much of a film career. Shandling and Henderson were really TV figures, and Alexis Arquette had a small film career.
I know that membership isn’t forced upon a person. Woody Allen, having won several oscars, would have been forwarded automatic membership, because that is policy, but just because it’s offered, doesn’t mean a person has to take up the offer.
Other people are invited take up membership outside of being nominated or winning, and again they are not required to take it up if they do not want to.
However, when they die, the Academy isn’t also required to add them to the inmemoriam segment precisely because that segment is specifically to remember the academy membership, NOT every single person in the community no matter how deserving they may be.
Ps: my bad regarding Alan Rickman. For some reason i thought he died late last year, not beginning of the year.
And i’m perfectly aware of Alex’s career, and i know he wasn’t a member. It’s that simple.
I’m just pointing out that being a member isn’t the “rule” for this. Notability in their field is what matters. A notable non-member with a film career will be included, and members who never had notable careers (surprisingly applies to a lot of AMPAS members, especially from decades ago) are left out each year.
thank you for some wise commentary around this
Oh wow I did not know Alexis Arquette had died. I don’t know why that affects me so much, but it does make me sad.
And I don’t even have words for the fact that they used the wrong picture. That is just shocking. Oh and in the Variety excerpt it says she died in 2015, when really it was 2016. Somehow mistakes keep happening when reporting her about . Someone should make that into a thing, creating amazing background stories for her.
I’m glad you pointed this out, and it was well intentioned but … you’ve also linked to a recent photo of Jan Chapman (the smh article) while mentioning they “looked alike”! Chapman (not dead) and Patterson (who died) looked absolutely nothing like each other: one was a tall brunette, the other is a short redhead. You can see how different they look in the Oscar photo above from the early 90s (Chapman left, Patterson middle, Campion right).
Fwiw THIS was a recent photo of Patterson http://sandramarsh.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Janet-Patterson_photo_cropped-176×170.jpg
The problem with the Internet is that someone makes a mistake, no one corrects it, then the mistake gets repeated over and over again in future articles. The Academy has no excuse for this, it was laziness and incompetence. When you’re putting together something that millions will see you don’t just get an intern to Google for a photo and says it’s fine – which appears to be what they did. She was nominated for 4 Oscars for goodness sake. She had an agent! There’s really no excuse … and they haven’t even apologised.
I really dislike the grandeur of these events that make me think of the French King Louis XIV. The Oscars are at an embarrassing level of preciousness and tackiness.
Adding insult to injury they do mix-ups such as these…
I’m sorry for my immature humor, but I laughed. I had always wanted to see that happen.
Jay and Bey was town! Sum illuminati conspiracy theorys in 5..4…3!!
“Garry Shandling, Florence Henderson, Robert Vaughn, Doris Roberts and Alexis Arquette.”
Why does this come up every year? The Academy’s tribute is for members of the Academy and people who primarily made their name in feature films. Love all four of these individuals but they were primarily famous for television. Stop concern trolling who gets left out when it’s obvious you’re not even paying attention to the primary purpose of the segment.