Glenn Close introduced Sunday night's Academy Awards "In Memoriam" segment by expressing gratitude toward those who have died: "Because of the great gift of film, they will be here forever. We love you, we honor you, we miss you, but most of all, we thank you." She also suggested, in a halfhearted attempt to mitigate backlash, that there just wasn't enough room to recognize all the dearly departed.

So who won this year's most tasteless popularity contest in Hollywood?

The montage, expectedly, began and ended with fan favorites James Gandolfini and Philip Seymour Hoffman. In total, 47 people were mentioned:

  • James Gandolfini
  • Karen Black
  • Tom Laughlin
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
  • Carmen Zapata
  • Hal Needham
  • Richard Shepherd
  • Stuart Freeborn
  • Gerry Gambling
  • Jim Kelly
  • Stephenie McMillan
  • Les Blank
  • Eileen Brennan
  • Paul Walker
  • Fay Kanin
  • Charles L. Campbell
  • Deanna Durbin
  • Frederic Back
  • A.C. Lyles
  • Elmore Leonard
  • Annette Funicello
  • Petro Vlahos
  • Eduardo Coutinho
  • Saul Zaentz
  • Riz Ortolani
  • Peter O'Toole
  • Ray Harryhausen
  • Brian Ackland-Snow
  • Richard Griffiths
  • Sid Caesar
  • Roger Ebert
  • Shirley Temple Black
  • Joan Fontaine
  • Run Run Shaw
  • Juanita Moore
  • Mickey Moore
  • Stefan Kudelski
  • Harold Ramis
  • Eleanor Parker
  • Ray Dolby
  • Julie Harris
  • Maxmilian Schell
  • Richard Matheson
  • Gilbert Taylor
  • Tom Sherak
  • Esther Williams
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman

Who was "snubbed" from the official video?

Midnight Rider crew member Sarah Jones, who was only mentioned in a banner at the end of Bette Midler's performance, director Alain Resnais, who died early Sunday, actors Cory Monteith, James Avery, Dennis Farina, Jonathan Winters, Lee Thompson Young, and many others, including:

Directors Bryan Forbes ("Seance on a Wet Afternoon," "The Stepford Wives"), Antonia Bird ("Ravenous"), and Juan Jose Bigas Luna ("Jamon, Jamon"); producers Harvey Bernhard ("The Omen") and James Jacks ("The Mummy"); screenwriters Mike Gray (an Oscar-nominee for "The China Syndrome") and Vincenzo Cerami (Oscar-nominee for "Life is Beautiful"); and author Tom Clancy (whose numerous bestselling novels inspired numerous blockbuster movies).

Also: editors William T. Cartwright ("Four Days in November") and two-time Oscar-nominee Frank E. Morriss ("Romancing the Stone," "Blue Thunder"); costume designer Ha Nguyen ("The Mask"); publicists Julian Myers and Eddie Michaels, and animators Michael Sporn (an Oscar-winner for "Doctor DeSoto") and John David Wilson ("Gerald McBoing Boing").

Also: actors Milo O'Shea, Jean Stapleton, Ralph Waite, Michael Ansara, Roger Hill, Russell Johnson, Dale Robertson, Eric Lawson, Maxine Stuart, Alicia Rhett, and Ruth Duccini (one of the last surviving "Wizard of Oz" Munchkins).

However, most of those who were left out of the montage did in fact make the cut in the Academy's online "In Memoriam" gallery. I guess an online gallery is better than nothing?

But really, while honoring those who have died is important, the Academy montage should no longer exist in this form. It's a maudlin Hollywood ritual, governed by money, fear, and uncomfortable fetishization. Either stream a list—in alphabetical order—of all of those who were lost or just stop it altogether and direct viewers to the website shrine. It's time to change.