Jane Fonda furious with Barbra Streisand: the tribute to Robert Redford sparks controversy

What right did Barbra Streisand have to claim the Oscar tribute to Robert Redford? Jane Fonda is furious after the co-star of The Way We Were was given the honor of the tribute to the actor who passed away in 2025 at the age of 91 at the end of the In Memoriam segment during the last night of the stars.

"She made one film with him, I made four, and I have more stories to tell about him," complained the two-time Academy Award actress, wondering why she was snubbed after acting with Redford over the course of five decades in Little Fauss and Big Halsy, Barefoot in the Park, The Electric Horseman, and, in 2017, Our Souls at Night, an introspective love story between two lives at sunset that premiered at Venice when, at 160 years combined (81 for him and 79 for her), they were both awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

That was the second-to-last film of Redford in his long career: "I wanted to work with Jane before I died," he explained to reporters on that occasion. "I have always been in love with him: he was a wonderful human being who did so much for cinema," said the actress as she walked the red carpet at the Vanity Fair party.

Oscar Aftermath: the controversy over Robert Redford is not the only one that has surrounded the moving tribute segment in which Hollywood also honored Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, set designer Gianni Quaranta, and fashion designer Giorgio Armani, who was a regular in the film mecca after dressing Richard Gere in American Gigolo.

Redford and director Rob Reiner, who was killed in his home in Los Angeles along with his wife Michele by their son Nick, were the main figures remembered by the Academy, where the absence of stars who passed away prematurely, such as James Van Der Beek and Eric Dane, was noted in the U.S., while in France the omission of Brigitte Bardot, an icon of the Nouvelle Vague, caused a stir.

BB was excluded for the far-right political positions that caused boos during the tribute that was paid to the diva of And God Created Woman? at the last Cesar. Last year in France, there were controversies over the snub to Alain Delon, justified for having made only three films in Hollywood. «It’s the Academy that decides. Unfortunately, we are losing more and more people, and especially, every year we lose legendary figures,» explained defensively the vice president of Disney Television Rob Mills, who is also the executive responsible for the live broadcast on Abc. In his opinion, the 2026 Oscars had the «best In Memoriam in the history of the awards».