Ryan O’Neal gave a long interview to Radar Online in which he made it very clear how he felt about the Academy’s seemingly deliberate decision to exclude his deceased partner, Farrah Fawcett, from the in memoriam clip at Sunday’s Oscar ceremony. Fawcett and several other high profile celebrities who passed away last year were omitted, most notably Bea Arthur, (star of Golden Girls and Mame, I loved that movie!) and I’ve since heard about journalist Dominick Dunne and Tonight Show Host Ed McMahon also being forgotten. The Academy has issued several statements that amount to “we can’t fit everyone in, that’s the way it is,” and it sounds like an arrogant response from an organization that expects the public to sit through over three hours of industry back-slapping year after year. (Sadly, the ratings are up this year despite the relative lack of entertainment value in this year’s ceremony, especially compared to last year when Hugh Jackman hosted. You just know that they’re going to use that as a mandate to continue the boring, overlong status quo.)

O’Neal calls Farrah’s omission “a terrible decision” and “very hurtful,” noting that Farrah was a longterm member of the Academy. He says that he’s trying to get some sort of response from the Academy as to why the decision was made:

a“It was a terrible decision and very hurtful,” O’Neal said. “Farrah was a member of the Academy for over 40 years and we could not believe she did not get a mention.” Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson and Brittany Murphy were included in the segment.

O’Neal also revealed that he and daughter Tatum O’Neal- who watched the ceremony together- intend to write a letter of protest.

“Both Tatum and I were very upset and we intend to write a letter to the Academy to try and get an explanation for this oversight on their behalf.”

RadarOnline.com spoke to Lesle Unger, a rep for the Academy, shortly after the awards ended. She explained that “there are many angles that are looked at as to who to include and unfortunately we don’t include everyone.”

Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said days before that the segment was the most difficult to produce since they had to whittle over a hundred names down to around thirty.

O’Neal scoffed at the notion that Fawcett would not make that final cut: “They gave mentions to sound guys and other writers and without being disrespectful, Farrah Fawcett was an icon and a household name.

“Quite frankly, we were stunned at the decision not to include her in the tribute and I feel that the Academy should be scolded for that, everyone was shocked.”

[From Radar Online]

O’Neal was more reserved in his official statement. His rep told People that “There is no comment other than we were disappointed that she was not included.” Other celebrities tweeted that Farrah’s omission was a shame, including legendary critic Roger Ebert, who wrote “No Farrah Fawcett in the memorial tribute? Major fail,” and Jane Fonda, who tweeted “And where was Farrah Fawcett? She should have been included #oscars #FAIL.” As E! Online reports, The Academy is not likely to ever apologize. Farrah’s friend Craig Nevius says that the Academy is just going to wait and let this die down. “I think it would be very big of them to own up to the mistake, but I also think it might set a dangerous precedent for them, which is why they probably won’t do it.” Personally I would rather see a couple more minutes of memorial clips than sit through any of the technical awards, like sound editing and mixing, but as I said yesterday they’re not going to cut any of that. The Academy is way out of of touch.