Tori Spelling slams Shannen Doherty’s exclusion from Oscars ‘In Memoriam’

Tori Spelling won’t let Shannen Doherty’s legacy be forgotten.

While looking back on the career of her “lifelong friend” in a special episode of the late actress’ Let’s Be Clear podcast, Spelling took a few minutes to voice her outrage over Doherty’s absence from the Oscars “In Memoriam” segment.

“I’m sure all of you definitely saw — as I saw, as the world saw — that it was heartbreaking that Shannen was left out of the ‘In Memoriam’ segment at the Academy Awards,” Spelling said of the March ceremony. “I have to say, it was shocking, truly shocking. Because to me, I discovered Shannen as a fan on the big screen. While she was so iconically known for her TV roles — which I want to honor her and go through her career today — but it’s really the big screen where her career just thrived. And she just lit up the big screen, going back to when she was a kid.”

Spelling continued, “I couldn’t believe it. Honestly, when the ‘In Memoriam’ stopped and she hadn’t been included, my heart dropped. It sank. And it sank because I was like, ‘What? It’s such a miss.'”

The 90210 alum added that while she isn’t privy to how the Academy selects who will be included in the segment, and knows there are “many people in the entertainment industry” who should be honored, it was still “shocking” to see an “iconic” figure like Doherty missing from the slideshow.

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The Academy’s In Memoriam segment has a history of omitting a few names each year, due to the limited amount of time allotted for the segment. In addition to Doherty, such stars as Tony Todd, John Ashton, Bernard Hill, Olivia Hussey, Eleanor Coppola, Alain Delon, Morgan Spurlock, Johnny Wactor, Barbara Rush, Martin Mull, and Tony Lo Bianco were noticeably absent from the 2025 iteration. Instead, they were all featured on a much longer “In Memoriam” list published on the Academy’s website. 

But for Spelling, Doherty’s absence was personally upsetting because it marked the third person in her life to be left out of the segment.

“The year my dad passed, I remember he was left out of it,” she said of her producer father Aaron Spelling, who died in 2006.

Spelling also pointed out the sudden death of her and Doherty’s former 90210 costar, adding, “And then, ironically, the year that Luke Perry passed, he was left out of it.”

She continued, “But it’s not like Shannen could have been an oversight. It just felt for all of us watching that loved her and loved her work, it felt like not only was she robbed, but we were robbed.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for the Academy for comment.

Doherty, who earned a legion of fans with her work on Charmed and 90210, died July 13 at 53 following a long battle with breast cancer. While she is most commonly known for her television roles, Doherty also starred in several films over her decades-long career, including such cult classics as Mallrats and Heathers.

Listen to Spelling pay tribute to Doherty in the podcast episode above.