Fans have expressed outrage after late actress Michelle Trachtenberg was omitted from the Oscars 2025 In Memoriam segment on Sunday night.
The 39-year-old actress, who died last week in New York, was notably absent from the tribute honouring film industry figures who passed away in the last year.
"Did they really not even include Michelle Trachtenberg in the 'In Memoriam' for tonight's Oscars??? That's icky," wrote one viewer on social media.
"It's shameful that the Oscars didn't include Michelle Trachtenberg in their memorial montage," another fan stated.
Trachtenberg was found dead at her Manhattan apartment on Wednesday morning.
Police responded to a 911 call shortly after 8am at a luxury apartment tower in Hell's Kitchen, where officers found her "unconscious and unresponsive".
Gossip Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Michelle Trachtenberg died aged 39
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Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene, with no foul play suspected.
Reports suggest she was found by her mother at One Columbus Place, a 51-story luxury complex in Manhattan's Central Park South neighbourhood.
It's believed her body may have rejected a liver transplant, which she reportedly received within the last year.
The New York City's Office of Chief Medical Examiner ruled both the cause and manner of Trachtenberg's death as "undetermined".
Morgan Freeman pays tribute to Gene Hackman before the #Oscars In Memoriam segment pic.twitter.com/lcQVzfXvvo
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 3, 2025
This came after her family objected to an autopsy, a request the medical examiner's office honoured.
Such objections are allowed by law, which limited the findings in her case.
"The family requests privacy for their loss," Trachtenberg's representative, Gary Mantoosh, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Undetermined" can indicate either inadequate information to assess how a person died or conflicting evidence regarding the manner of death.
Trachtenberg began her career as a child actress, playing Nona Mecklenberg on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete from 1994 to 1996.
She starred in the title role of Harriet the Spy in 1996 and later appeared in Inspector Gadget opposite Matthew Broderick.
From 2000 to 2003, she played Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar.
She gained further fame as scheming villain Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl, a role that earned her a Teen Choice Award nomination in 2012.
Her film credits included EuroTrip, Ice Princess, 17 Again and Black Christmas.
Hollywood colleagues mourned Trachtenberg's passing with heartfelt tributes.
Blake Lively honoured her Gossip Girl co-star on Instagram, writing: "The world lost a deeply sensitive and good person in Michelle. May her work and her huge heart be remembered by those who were lucky enough to experience her fire."
Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star David Boreanaz called it "so very sad... horrible news."
Rosie O'Donnell, who starred alongside Trachtenberg in Harriet the Spy, said her death was "heartbreaking" and that "she struggled the last few years."
Trachtenberg's final film credit was the documentary Spyral, released last year after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the film, she reads excerpts from the diary of Randall White's late wife Michelle Cody White, who suffered from undiagnosed bipolar depression.
Before her death, Trachtenberg had planned to attend the South by Southwest Festival in Austin for a Spyral screening scheduled for 12 March.
"I am so saddened by the loss of Michelle," Jennifer Hutchins, the film's producer, told People magazine.
