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Michelle Trachtenberg tragically passed away last week.

Many of her fans and former costars are still in shock. This was so unexpected.

The 2025 Oscars have come and gone with relatively few surprises in the mix.

But this year’s In Memoriam segment of the Oscars snubbed Trachtenberg. And she was not the only conspicuous exclusion.

Michelle Trachtenberg attends the 28th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party sponsored by IMDb, Neuro Drinks and Walmart on February 09, 2020. (Photo Credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images) Why did Michelle Trachtenberg not appear in the Oscars ‘In Memoriam’ tribute?

On Sunday, March 3, the 2025 Oscars telecast included the familiar tribute to deceased stars — and a few others from within the film industry — who have died over the past year.

The segment used the “Lacrimosa” section from Mozart’s “Requiem in D Minor,” which is often a tasteful decision.

Late titans of...

J. Michael Straczynski's "Babylon 5" began its life as a two-hour TV movie called "Babylon 5: The Gathering" which aired on February 22, 1993. There was some controversy about the series, however, as Straczynski pitched his space station series to Paramount as early as 1989. Paramount turned Straczynski down, and he took his series to Warner Bros., who approved. Suspiciously, only two months after Warner announced "Babylon 5," Paramount announced their own space station series, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." In a Tweet from 2018, Straczynski claimed that Paramount "put their show into high gear, spending four times what we did so they'd make it to air first." Indeed, "Deep Space Nine" first aired on January 3, 1999, beating "Babylon 5" by a month and a half. No legal action was taken against Paramount, but there has been a certain amount of bitterness ever since. 

Additionally, the "Babylon 5" TV series didn't begin airing in...

According to Los Angeles Times, prolific TV, film, and theater production designer John Iacovelli died on April 14th, 2023, following a struggle with cancer. He was aged 64.

Iacovelli served as production designer on Babylon 5, the spin-off series Crusade, and the TV movies, Babylon 5: In the Beginning (1998), Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998), Babylon 5: River of Souls (1998), Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (1999).

In 1998 Iacovelli was nominated for an Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Award for his work on the show, sharing the nomination with Babylon 5 art director Mark Walters.

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski paid tribute to Iacovelli on Twitter, calling him “the soul” of the production.

Devastated today to learn of the passing of John Iacovelli, art director/production designer for Babylon 5 and a ton of other stuff. He was a good and kind and talented man. If Dp John Flinn was the heart of the shooting company,...