Arriving in our mailbox this morning was this reminder that, exactly six months ago today, an actor who was not Heath Ledger died:

Hello! :)

I am a huge fan of the late Brad Renfro. Today, Tuesday, July 15th, marks 6 months since Brad's untimely passing. Is there anyway that you could mention something in honor of Brad on the anniversary of his death? This is a significant and sad day for Brad's family, friends, and fans who loved him dearly, and as a fan, I think it would be so nice to see someone in the media actually pay respect to him on this day of remembrance.

And we were totally ready to whip up a couple lines of copy noting Renfro's half death-day … until we got to the second paragraph of the email:

CONTINUED »

The Oscars just couldn't get it together this year: Not only did the Academy leave Brad Renfro out of the "In Memoriam" tribute, but Whoopi Goldberg was nowhere to be found during a montage of Oscar's greatest moments.

On yesterday's The View, Whoopi teared up at the omission. Have you no soul, Academy?

'No harm was intended, and I feel very, very badly that she was left out,' [producer] Gil Cates said Tuesday. 'I'm going to call her and tell her that.'

'It was an absolute oversight' to leave out Goldberg, an Oscar winner and nominee who had hosted telecasts that Cates himself produced.

Wow. This guy forgot about Whoopi — the second black woman to ever win an Oscar and the only award winner to also host the show — and he produced the telecasts in which she was involved?

Were the producers just drunk during the planning process? What is going on here?

[Source]

Despite the New York Times calling his work "disarming" and director Joel Schumacher saying he was "smart" and "too good to believe," recently deceased young actor Brad Renfro went unhonored in last night's annual Academy Awards "In Memoriam" montage.

Asked about Renfro's absence, the Academy issued a statement saying, "It is simply not possible to include everyone in that segment." Of course, they did find time to highlight 98 other dead entertainment industry veterans and make some bullshit Norbit jokes.

And people wonder why young stars are so fucked up.

THE OTHER ACTOR WHO DIED LAST MONTH "In a sad conclusion to a tragic life, the Los Angeles County Coroner confirmed that actor Brad Renfro died from an accidental overdose of heroin. The cause of death was ruled 'acute heroin/morphine intoxication,' and the drugs were injected, according to the coroner's office. 'The final manner of death has been ruled an accident,' the coroner reported. The 25-year-old former child actor was found dead in his LA home on Jan. 15."

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Former child star Brad Renfro, whose later career was overshadowed by his drug and alcohol abuse, was found dead at his home yesterday morning. He was 25.

While the cause of death remains unknown, there are reports that he had been out drinking with friends the previous night.

Upon being plucked from obscurity from Knoxville, Tennessee to play a witness to a suicide in 1994's The Client, Renfro was asked in an interview how the role would change him:

“I’ll always be Brad Renfro, born on July 25, 1982,” he said. “Nothing’s going to change that. It won’t be any different.”