A Shameful Sham

It's a shame!

In the days following the conclusion of my interest in the remainder of the awards season climax on this side of the pond, it allowed me to reflect a little bit more on what Michael Fassbender has accomplished. But first, I want to talk about the infantile and embarrassing articles that have been written by Americans about the "reason" why Michael was snubbed for an Oscar nomination last week. The childish taunts and mockings by "journalists" say more about them, and American's so-called puritanical fears of male nudity, than it does about Michael Fassbender. If you were to do a quick Google search on news about Michael Fassbender, you will see headlines that joke about Michael's nudity as being the reason for the snub, and high-school locker room language about his physicality. The headlines are designed purely to get visits to the website and to read a shallow article that has been written by someone who is absolutely clueless about Michael's cinema repertoire and true talents beyond the role that has gotten him the most fame this season. And to top it all off, I got an invite to follow a new tumblr blog that is strictly devoted to all forms of Michael in the nude, co-starring Fassbender Jr! No thank you!

I was so gung ho and anxious leading up to Tuesday morning last week, and then, we were all let down like a balloon that was suddenly popped by a hot sharp needle. Like many of you, I was upset, but then that upset turned into a mental exhaustion, and then that exhaustion turned into being angry at an injustice that was unfair and discriminatory and based on a sexist system of double-standards. Of all the years that I have been watching the race towards the Oscar nominations, I have never witnessed such a blatant act of exclusion, elitism, sexism, and plain old fashioned ignorance. Once I stepped away from the snub madness, I was able to say to myself in a calm manner, that this is just what it is, and Michael deserves better than this, and he will get his just rewards. I'm also relieved that he will not be the butt of jokes and snide commentary while he continued to actively participate in the soul eating campaign for a piece of gold plated metal. If Michael Fassbender were to ever truly be recognized and honored with an Oscar nomination in the future, it should come after some distance and time from the success of his work in Shame. The residue of the deliberate snub (because the film was NC-17 and showed male nudity - the two principle reasons why AMPAS didn't give Shame the time of day) will be a distant memory because Hollywood suffers from attention deficit disorder.

So, I'm glad for Michael's sake he doesn't have to deal with American media ignorance for the remainder of this winter and coming spring while Shame and his nudity is still on repressed gossipy tongues. Meanwhile, for the weekend of February 11-12th, there will be back to back opportunities for Michael to conclude his award collection season which started way back in September at the Venice Film Festival. I'm not going to make any predictions, I'm done with that. I just want to wish Michael the best of luck in having the Irish (Irish Film and Television Awards) and the British (BAFTAs) award him with their respective Best Actor trophy, and to show the Americans what a Best Actor nominee and winner really looks like.

To those of you regular Fassinating Fassbender contributors who missed out on participating in Plan B, or if you did not want to participate in it, I may have an alternative option for you to consider. It will be strictly dealing with me one on one in getting a birthday greeting to His Awesomeness. Just email me.