The 98th Academy Awards will be memorable not just for its nominees but also for its significant “In Memoriam” segment honoring the industry’s deceased icons.
When Harry Met Sally stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan will reunite to honor the film’s late director, Rob Reiner, and Oscar-winning Barbara Streisand will honor The Way They Were costar Robert Redford, according to reports by Variety.
Crystal, 77, who previously hosted the show nine times, will reportedly talk about the late filmmaker during the ceremony’s “In Memoriam” segment, while Ryan, 64, and other actors from Reiner’s films join him onstage.
Streisand, 83, is currently in talks to perform a song at the awards ceremony, perhaps reprising her 2013 Oscars performance of “The Way They Were” for the late composer Marvin Hamlisch.
It is still unclear whether her performance will be part of the larger tribute or stand alone.
In December, Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michelle Singer, 70, were killed in their home. Their son, Nick, has been charged with their deaths. He pleaded not guilty and will return to court in April.
Following the Reiners’ deaths, Crystal released a joint statement with other friends of the Hollywood couple, including Larry David, Albert Brooks, and Martin Short. In the statement released to the Associated Press, Crystal said that Reiner “not only was a great comic actor, he became a master story teller.”
“Rob was also a passionate, brave citizen, who not only cared for this country he loved, he did everything he could to make it better and with his loving wife Michele, he had the perfect partner,” the statement reads. “We were their friends, and we will miss them forever.”
In September, Oscar-winning Redford, 89, died in his sleep. Streisand, who earned an Oscar nomination for her role opposite Redford in the 1973 film, remembered working with the legendary actor in an Instagram post.
“Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy. We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie. Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting— and one of the finest actors ever," she wrote.
“The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings. He was one of a kind and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him,” she added.
Since last year’s Academy Awards, Hollywood has lost many iconic actors, including Catherine O’Hara—who won a posthumous Actor Award on Sunday—Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, and Val Kilmer, among others.
The 98th Oscars will take place on March 15 on ABC and will be streamed live on Hulu.
