Robert Blake’s Son Slams Jimmy Kimmel for Oscars Joke About Late Actor
‘BOTCHED AND BUNGLED’
Noah Blake also responded to a joke that host Jimmy Kimmel made before the montage, asking viewers to vote on their phones as to whether his later father should be included.
Just before rolling the Oscars’ annual In Memoriam segment on Sunday night, host Jimmy Kimmel cracked a joke about the actor Robert Blake, who died last week at age 89. “Everybody please get out your phones, even at home, it's time to vote,” he said. “If you think Robert Blake should be part of the In Memoriam montage, text ‘Gimme-A-Blake’ to the number on your screen, or to any number.” As the audience laughed, the segment began, omitting Blake—as well as a spate of other marquee names, including Paul Sorvino, Anne Heche, and Gilbert Gottfried. On Monday, Blake’s son from his first marriage, Noah Blake, spoke up in defense of his father, criticizing both the omission and Kimmel’s quip. “I think it was just handled poorly all the way around,” he told TMZ of the segment. “I think the whole In Memoriam was just botched and bungled really, really badly.” Though he noted that “people are entitled to their opinions” about his father, who was arrested and acquitted of his second wife’s shooting death, “your opinion about someone, personally, really, should be independent from the work that they do.” As for Kimmel’s joke, Blake labeled it “so-so,” saying he “didn’t even seem to feel comfortable” making it.
