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A picture of Jan Chapman, mistakenly pictured for Janet Patterson in this year’s Oscars In Memoriam montage.
Jan Chapman, mistakenly pictured for Janet Patterson in this year’s Oscars In Memoriam montage. Photograph: YouTube
Jan Chapman, mistakenly pictured for Janet Patterson in this year’s Oscars In Memoriam montage. Photograph: YouTube

The other Oscars gaffe: 'dead' woman from In Memoriam montage is still alive

This article is more than 7 years old

Jan Chapman ‘devastated’ her photo was used instead of late costume designer Janet Patterson in film honouring industry luminaries who died in past year

Australian film producer Jan Chapman has said she is “devastated” after her photo was mistakenly used in the Oscars’ In Memoriam montage, which celebrates film industry luminaries who have died in the past year.

Chapman’s photo was used to accompany the name and dates of her friend, Janet Patterson, a four-time Oscar nominee for costume design, who died in October 2016.

Emailing Variety, Chapman said:

I was devastated by the use of my image in place of my great friend and long-time collaborator Janet Patterson. I had urged her agency to check any photograph which might be used and understand that they were told that the Academy had it covered. Janet was a great beauty and four-time Oscar nominee and it is very disappointing that the error was not picked up. I am alive and well and an active producer.

Patterson’s credits include Portrait of a Lady, Oscar and Lucinda, Bright Star and The Piano, on which she worked with Chapman. Chapman, once married to director Philip Noyce, worked on the likes of Lantana and Holy Smoke.

Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, Gene Wilder and Prince were among those mourned in the montage. Bill Paxton’s death, which was announced on Sunday, came too late for this year’s sequence, but Jennifer Aniston did mention him in her introduction.

A snub for Garry Shandling surprised some.

The mix-up was not the first of the evening, after Faye Dunaway named La La Land as this year’s best picture, only to be corrected a few minutes later as the musical’s makers celebrated on stage. Moonlight in fact won the coveted award.

More on this story

More on this story

  • PwC issues apology after Oscars best picture envelope mistake

  • Oscar winners 2017: the full list

  • Don't let that Oscars blunder overshadow Moonlight's monumental achievement

  • La La Land mistakenly named best picture – video

  • Jimmy Kimmel skewers Trump racism in Oscars opening monologue

  • Who won the Oscars 2017 red carpet? Political upset is the new normal

  • Moonlight wins best picture Oscar, after Warren Beatty gives gong to La La Land

  • Anatomy of an Oscars fiasco: how La La Land was mistakenly announced as best picture

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