Lupe Ontiveros Snubbed By Oscars' 'In Memoriam' Segment; Latinos Mad
It was an Academy Awards in which a movie about a Latino CIA operative who designed the ingenious rescue of six American diplomats from revolutionary Iran in 1979 won "best picture."
Lupe Ontiveros
But that Latino, Tony Mendez, was played by a white guy, Ben Affleck. Can't Hollywood throw brown folks a bone?
Apparently not. Some in the Latino community are mad that one actress was absent from last night's show:
Lupe Ontiveros. She died in July but was not included in the Oscar's annual "in memoriam" segment dedicated to industry standouts who passed in the previous year.
The actress' pinnacle was, perhaps, her performance in the Academy Award-winning film As Good as It Gets.
It was her trademark role -- playing a maid: Ontiveros had said she portrayed maids more than 150 times in her career.
She once said of the typecasting:
I long to play a judge. I long to play a lesbian woman. I long to play a councilman, someone with some chutzpah.
Some folks were disappointed about Sunday night's omission. (Lobbying for inclusion in the "in memoriam" segment is intense and involves agents, publicists and other widowed handlers).
To be fair, we noticed a lot of Spanish surnames as the Oscars' production credits rolled last night.
But Lupe's absence was a bigger deal on Twitter:
Online memes commenting on Lupe Ontiveros not being noted during Oscar "In Memoriam" segment are coming in fast and furious.
— Ed Fuentes (@viewfromaloft) February 25, 2013
Hey, how come Lupe Ontiveros didn't get recognized in the #Oscars memoriam? Helllllllloooo Hollywood??!!
— Venusse Navid (@NavidSGVN) February 25, 2013
Latinos: the biggest minority, the ones watching movies but poor representation tonight even left out Lupe Ontiveros! #latism
— Sarykarmen Rivera (@Sarykarmen) February 25, 2013
How shameful. Lupe Ontiveros was left out of Oscar In Memoriam. #Oscars2013
— VOXXI (@VoxxiNews) February 25, 2013
Oscars Academy: We didn't include Lupe Ontiveros in the In Memoriam segment because we thought she really was a maid!
— Lalo Alcaraz (@laloalcaraz) February 25, 2013
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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