Carrie Fisher is due to be honoured with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, however a family row has threatened to overshadow the occasion.
The late actress, who died aged 60 in 2016, was best known for playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars films.
She will fittingly be immortalised on May 4, AKA Star Wars Day, a day which is annually observed by fans of the Disney owned sci-fi franchise.
The star will be placed near those of her co-star Mark Hamill and her late mother, Hollywood icon Debbie Reynolds.
Her only child, actress Billie Lourd, will be accepting the star on her behalf, but Fisher’s siblings have voiced their upset that she hasn’t invited them to attend.
In response, Lourd accused them of trying to “capitalise on my mother’s death”.
Carrie’s brother Todd Fisher, told TMZ: “It’s heartbreaking and shocking to me that I was intentionally omitted from attending this important legacy event for my sister, Carrie.”
Half-sister Joely Fisher posted a message on behalf of herself and sister Tricia Leigh Fisher saying: “Strangely we won’t be in attendance to celebrate our sister, whom we adored.
“For some bizarre, misguided reason our niece has chosen not to include us in this epic moment in our sister’s career.
“This is something Carrie would have definitely wanted her siblings to be present for. The fact that her only brother and two sisters were intentionally and deliberately excluded is deeply shocking.”
She added that they had “all been grieving the loss of our favourite human for some years now… we have given Billie the space to do that in her own way”.
She went on to stress that they had been “nothing but loving and open, consistently”.
Adding: “This isn’t about a photo op on Hollywood Blvd. This is about celebrating the permanency of Carrie’s legacy in this industry, taking her place with a star on the iconic walk of fame alongside our parents.”
Lourd responded in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, which read: “I apologise to anyone reading this for feeling the need to defend myself publicly from these family members,” she wrote.
“But unfortunately, because they publicly attacked me, I have to publicly respond. The truth is I did not invite them to this ceremony. They know why.
“Days after my mom died, her brother and her sister chose to process their grief publicly and capitalise on my mother’s death, by doing multiple interviews and selling individual books for a lot of money, with my mom and my grandmother [actress Debbie Reynolds]’s deaths as the subject.
“I found out they had done this through the press. They never consulted me or considered how this would affect our relationship. The truth of my mom’s very complicated relationship with her family is only known by me and those who were actually close to her.
“Though I recognise they have every right to do whatever they choose, their actions were very hurtful to me at the most difficult time in my life. I chose to and still choose to deal with her loss in a much different way.”
