Lobbying for Another "WTF?!!" Moment at the 2013 Oscar Ceremony

Even for the Dead, There’s a Race to Make the A-List at Oscars. (The New York Times, 2/7/2013)

Excerpt:    Beloved figures all. But who fills the next 30 or so spots in the memorial for this year’s show, which takes place on Feb. 24 at the Dolby Theater, is open to debate. And that debate is under way at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where a committee of members whose names are discreetly concealed from other members and the public are measuring celebrity, weighing achievement and trying to ward off entreaties from those who believe a loved one, friend or former client should have a last moment in the limelight. 

“Unfortunately, my calls to the Academy were not returned,” Sheldon Roskin, a longtime publicist, said in an e-mail this week, of his efforts to lobby for the inclusion of Tommy Culla, a public relations colleague unknown to moviegoers.

What can we learn about Tommy Culla on the Internet?

1.  His obituary did not appear in the New York Times.  You can search for information "About This Person" on the newspaper's website, but when I click on "Biography" I find nada -- except "Gender:  Male".

2.  Brian Lowry, columnist and critic for Variety, called him "a blast from the past" in a 12/2/2012 blogpost. He confessed to have met Culla just once.

3.  His IMDB entry is very brief.  Apparently, Culla's major claim to fame is serving as Burt Reynolds' assistant on Sharkey's Machine.