An Australian film producer has a message for those who noticed her in the in memoriam montage in the Academy Awards on Sunday night: She is alive and well.
The image of the producer, Jan Chapman, was mistakenly shown in the segment, which honours members of the movie industry who have died, in a tribute for Janet Patterson, an Australian costume designer. Patterson, who had been nominated for an Oscar four times, died in October. Chapman is not dead.
It was the first flub of the night and was overshadowed at the end of the show when La La Land, and not Moonlight, was incorrectly announced as the winner for best picture.
“I was devastated by the use of my image in place of my great friend and long-time collaborator Janet Patterson,” Chapman told Variety in an email. “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.”
She added, “I am alive and well and an active producer.”
Chapman and Patterson worked together on several movies, including the 1993 film The Piano. Patterson received an Oscar nomination for best costume design for that movie and another a few years later for The Portrait of a Lady, which starred Nicole Kidman.
After Patterson died, the Herald Sun newspaper in Australia quoted Kidman as saying, “She’s not here anymore but she lives on through those beautiful clothes and images.”
