One of the more unfortunate exclusions from last night's “In Memoriam” montage was Joan Rivers. It's fair to say few have done more (for better or worse) for Oscars recognition than Rivers. There's an entire industry built on the place she carved for herself, and she was a filmmaker, so any notion that she didn't belong because she wasn't part of the community or something is just bogus. Well, the Academy has responded.

In a statement released to the LA Times, the organization collectively left it at this:

“Joan Rivers is among the many worthy artists and filmmakers we were unfortunately unable to feature in the In Memoriam segment of this year's Oscar show. She is, however, included in our In Memoriam gallery on Oscar.com.”

Well, that's nice and all. But…

I'm not bent wildly out of shape about it or anything, but again, it was just a little odd that someone who was so synonymous with Oscar night would be cast aside like that. Particularly a female trail-blazer, at a time when the Academy is under fire for being a boys' club.

Also – and I'm just throwing this out there – but maybe if there wasn't yet another arbitrary musical number following the segment, there would have been time for Rivers and the other “worthy artists and filmmakers” the Academy was “unfortunately unable to feature?”