Actor Colm Meaney will be honoured by the US-Ireland Alliance at its pre-Academy Awards party, following the decision by Fionnula Flanagan to refuse the invitation.
The US-based Irish actor pulled out of the "Oscar Wilde: Honouring the Irish in Film" event over remarks made by the alliance's president about the undocumented Irish in the US.
In November, Trina Vargo, president of the US-Ireland Alliance, wrote an opinion article in The Irish Timessaying it would be morally wrong to support a special deal that would single out illegal Irish immigrants for preferential treatment, while leaving behind millions of others.
The article was criticised by Niall O'Dowd, founder and chairman of the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.
Flanagan, whose credits include The Others, Transamericaand Some Mother's Son, said she had accepted the invitation to be honoured before she heard of the article.
She wrote to Ms Vargo last week setting out her reasons for pulling out of the event and stressing her support for the campaign by the Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform.
Meaney will join Academy Award winner James L Brooks and actor Fiona Shaw as honorees at the party on February 21st in Los Angeles.
The alliance established the event three years ago to bring together people in the film industry in the US and Ireland.
Meaney recently starred in Kings, the first Irish film to be entered in the Academy Awards best foreign-language film category.
