BAFTA officials have released a statement after viewers were left shocked and disappointed following the ceremony's decision to leave out Matthew Perry from Sunday night's 'In Memoriam' segment.
Last night's prestigious BAFTAs saw a whole host of some of the world's best talent gather at The Royal Festival Hall in London to celebrate all things British and global cinema.
The awards - which were hosted by former Doctor Who actor David Tennant - saw Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Hugh Grant, Fantasia Barrino, and Emma Stone, amongst an array of other notable stars celebrate some great films over the past year.
While the show went smoothly for the most part, there was one moment that had viewers screaming at their screens and it was the 'In Memoriam' section, which seemingly omitted one prominent name from the lineup: Matthew Perry.
After the tribute concluded, fans of actor jumped on X - formerly Twitter - and slammed the academy for the alleged snub.
"The #BAFTAs not including Matthew Perry in their "In Memoriam" section is my villain origin story," wrote one user while another added: "No mention of Matthew Perry in the #BAFTAs memorial?! Bad form."
A third slammed it as "so wrong" writing: "How disgusting that the Baftas missed out any mention of Matthew Perry on the memoriam section ....so wrong."
Officials have now responded back to the backlash with a tweet of their own.
"Matthew Perry will be remembered in this year’s TV Awards ceremony," they wrote before sharing a link to the academy's online tribute to the actor.
Perry, who was best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the hit 90s sitcom Friends, tragically passed away after he reportedly drowned in a hot tub at his home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.
Local authorities were called to the property after reports of a "water emergency" and details later revealed that a bystander was forced to pull the actor out of the water and call 911.
In a statement about the initial call-out, the Los Angeles Fire Department also revealed some further details about the devastating incident, stating that emergency responders found Perry "unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi" when they were called to his home on October 28.
A spokesperson for the department told the outlet that "a bystander had brought the man’s head above the water and gotten him to the edge, then firefighters removed him from the water upon their arrival.
"A rapid medical assessment, sadly, revealed the man was deceased prior to first responder arrival," they added.
As per the Guardian, a postmortem examination concluded Perry died from the "acute effects of ketamine" while contributing factors included "drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine" - which is used to treat opioid use disorder.
Following his death, Perry's funeral was held in LA on November 3, 2023, with the star being laid to rest at a Forest Lawn cemetery - which is symbolically locagted opposite the Warner Brothers studios where Friends was filmed for ten years.
The ceremony was private, with invites only extended to close family and friends - a total of approximately 20 were said to be at the function.
All five lead actors from the Friends cast - Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer - came to the funeral wearing black while sharing their grief for their friend.
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