Was Lupe Ontiveros Intentionally Left Out Of The ‘In Memoriam’ Tribute?

Every year there seems to be another casualty left out of the “In Memoriam” tribute at the Oscars ceremony. A few years ago it was the controversial omission of Brad Renfro. This year it was actress Lupe Ontiveros. The Inquisitr, along with other media outlets ask whether or not the omission of her name was an intentional move by The Academy.

It wasn’t as if Lupe Ontiveros was new to the acting world. Ontiveros had a 35-year career within the industry with popular and notable roles such in Selena, Real Women Have Curves, and Desperate Housewives to her credits. Still, The Academy failed to mention Ontiveros within the televised “In Memoriam” and in their “In Memoriam” online gallery, which honored 114 stars that weren’t included in the telecast.

In addition to Ontiveros, Andy Griffith and Phyllis Diller were not mentioned in the televised “In Memoriam” either.

It gets interesting: Camila Quiroz on Twitter brought this point up as a reason for The Academy for coincidentally “forgetting” to mention her name:

“Maybe @TheAcademy decided to exclude Lupe Ontiveros in the In Memoriam because she denounced racism in Hollywood.”

Felix Sanchez, who’s a chairman and co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts spoke out about the omission of Ontiveros name saying:

“The Oscar telecast tried to move forward with ‘Family Guy’ humor, but what would Consuela [the housekeeper in the animated comedy] have said about the failure to acknowledge Lupe Ontiveros’ death? The actress, born Guadalupe Moreno in Texas, once estimated she had played a maid more than 300 times.”

Do you think The Academy meant to purposely leave out Lupe Ontiveros’ name out of the “In Memoriam” tributes? Sound off here!