The Twitterverse was outraged Sunday night after Joan Rivers was left out of the Academy Awards' annual in memoriam tribute, but the late comedienne's beloved daughter Melissa took a gentler approach.
"It would have been nice, especially considering the impact she had on the awards season, but Cooper and I have been overwhelmed with support and love over my mom's passing and we choose to focus on that," Melissa Rivers said Monday via her mother's Facebook account. Cooper is Melissa's son.
A rep for the Oscars explained the omission - kind of - in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
"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," the statement read. "She is, however, included in our In Memoriam gallery on Oscar.com."
As HNGN previously reported, during the Oscars pre-show, E!'s "Fashion Police" gang hosted the red carpet for the first time without Rivers. Melissa honored her mother's memory with a tribute to her longevity, sass and that question, "Who are you wearing?" "It's hard to believe it was 20 years ago that my mother and I stood on this very red carpet for the first time," Melissa said in the video. "My mom asked questions that nobody else dared to ask."
Rivers died on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 1:17 p.m. at the age of 81, the Associated Press reported via Twitter, citing Rivers' daughter Melissa Rivers. Rivers was hospitalized on Thursday, Aug. 28 after she stopped breathing during a routine throat procedure. According to TMZ, the "Fashion Police" cohost was undergoing surgery on her vocal chords at a New York City clinic when she went into cardiac and respiratory arrest.
