Mira Sorvino hits out at Oscars for leaving her father out of memoriam section
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Oscars
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: PA Images / Jeffrey Mayer / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Film and TV, Celebrity, Oscars
Mira Sorvino has slammed the Academy for leaving her father Paul Sorvino out of their 2023 memoriam section.
The late Goodfellas star - known for playing Paul Cicero in the classic 1990 crime film, alongside Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta - passed away in 2022, at the age of 83.
Daughter and Oscar-winner Mira, 55, has revealed that she was 'hurt and shocked' after his name was not mentioned in the memoriam segment of this year's 95th Academy Awards, which took place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday night (March 12).
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Alongside an emotional Instagram clip of winning Best Supporting Actress for Mighty Aphrodite in 1996, which shows her late father crying with joy, Mira wrote: "On this Oscars night I am so happy for all of the nominees and the winners, but I am also moved in a thousand different ways when I think of the night I got to share my Academy Award with my Dad, the very great actor Paul Sorvino, who was never nominated.
"To get to share this blindingly positive moment with my father.
"My first and best teacher, my beloved Daddy who came to all the school plays and loved from the bottom of his heart, the brilliant thespian whom all his colleagues revered as one of the greatest, to get to give back to him what he had been giving me all my life- love and belief and admiration and gratitude.
"On this first year after his passing it is truly a bittersweet but beautiful memory. I love you Dad, I miss you so much."
The actor later updated her post, writing: "****PS when I posted this I had not learned of Dad’s omission and that of several other incredible artists from the in Memoriam section.
"Incredibly hurt and shocked that my father’s lifelong, irreplaceable, enormous contribution to the world of cinema was overlooked by whomever made that list.
"We his adoring family, and you, his adoring public, know just how unique and incredible he was.
"We hope @theacademy does something to put this right."
Sorvino was included on the Oscars' In Memoriam page on their website, which could be accessed by a QR code during the broadcast.
However, his widow, Dee Dee Sorvino, said that a 'QR code was not acceptable'.
UNILAD has contacted the Academy for comment.
The segment was introduced by John Travolta, who teared up when mentioning his late-Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John, as Lenny Kravitz sung 'Calling All Angels' while the slide show played.
Sorvino died from 'natural causes' with his wife by his side.
A statement released by Sorvino’s publicist Roger Neal on behalf of his wife said: “Our hearts are broken, there will never be another Paul Sorvino, he was the love of my life, and one of the greatest performers to ever grace the screen and stage.”