The Academy Award this year has had more than one oops moment. This one is even more disastrous than declaring ‘La La Land’ as the winner in the best picture category instead of the actual winner ‘Moonlight’.
This blooper was in the show’s In Memoriam segment, a photo of a living woman was mistakenly used. Instead of 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 they used a picture of Jan Chapman, a still-living Australian film producer.
“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.”
To add to the confusion of mistaken identity Patterson and Chapman worked together on ‘The Piano’
This year’s ‘In Memoriam’ segment had several eyebrows raised for other. Several notable celebrities, who passed in 2016, including Garry Shandling and Florence Henderson, were not included in the tribute, although they were better known for their television careers.
