Actress Mira Sorvino criticized the Academy for leaving out her father, Paul Sorvino, following the In Memoriam segment during the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday night.
Paul died of natural causes in July. He was 83.
“It is baffling beyond belief that my beloved father and many other amazing brilliant departed actors were left out,” Mira tweeted. “The Oscars forgot about Paul Sorvino, but the rest of us never will!!”
At the end of the televised segment, The Academy shared a QR code, which directed viewers to a larger online segment that included the hundreds of names of late stars, including Paul.
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Mira Sorvino slammed the Academy for failing to acknowledge her father, Paul Sorvino, during the In Memoriam segment at the Oscars. (Getty Images)
Paul’s wife Dee Dee Sorvino exclusively told Fox News Digital that she “started crying” and was instantly “sick to her stomach” upon realizing the Academy made the decision to leave her husband out of the televised memorial.
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“It’s hard enough. It’s difficult enough, and then they leave him out? Paul is the epitome of a movie star. He is a true, blue movie star, and this is the Oscars. How do you miss that? I don’t understand it,” Dee Dee said.
“Look, it is a three-hour show. You cannot find a little more time to honor these people? It’s not right.”
Dee Dee (Benkie) Sorvino first met Paul Sorvino in the green room at Fox News ahead of a Neil Cavuto appearance. The couple eloped in 2014. (Getty Images)
She added, “Such an injustice to my Paul … who everybody loved and everybody loved his movies. He did so much work in the industry.”
In a separate statement, Dee Dee noted: “Paul was not the only deserving soul left out, and a QR Code is not acceptable.” In addition to Paul, viewers shared that Anne Heche and Charlbi Dean among others were not included in the telecast. The late stars were included in the larger online segment from the Academy.
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Sorvino — known just as much for mob roles with the late James Caan in “The Gambler,” working with Alan Arkin in “The Rocketeer” and Warren Beatty in “Dick Tracy” as he was for playing a crime-fighting cop in “Law & Order” — died at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida after suffering health issues, according to his representative.
Dee Dee remembered how Fox News played a pivotal part in their relationship as they first met in the green room while waiting for separate appearances on the network, and even announced their surprise elopement while on Neil Cavuto’s show in 2015.
Late actor Paul Sorvino joined Neil Cavuto on Fox News in January 2015 to announce he married wife Dee Dee Benkie in December 2014. The “Goodfellas” star died in July. (Fox News)
“If not for Fox, we would not be married. And Neil Cavuto, we called him Dr. Love,” she said. “We would always joke about this because Paul knew he wanted to marry me right away.”
She had some “hesitation” at first about their age differences as he was 28 years her senior, but admitted he was “so wonderful” and a “really lovely man” that their spirits were too kindred to see numbers.
He famously taught audiences the correct way to slice garlic with a razor blade in “Goodfellas” and played Claire Danes’ father, Fulgencio Capulet, in the cult classic Leonardo DiCaprio film directed by Baz Luhrmann, “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet.”
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Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
