Gimme some sugar, golden boy!

Lots of LGBT-related Academy Award nominations for the �gay Superbowl�

by Anthony Glassman

The Academy Awards nominations were unveiled on January 15, and the only really gay-related film nominated got about a thousand Oscar nods. Despite that, there was plenty of gay to go around.

Leaving out Foxcatcher for obvious reasons (and if you don�t know them, check out the review in the last issue), the big man on campus cinematically is The Imitation Game, a biographical drama about gay mathematician, computer pioneer and cryptologist Alan Turing, whose work in World War II contributed greatly to the Allied victory.

Turing was arrested and prosecuted for being very naughty with other gents, as the oh-so-proper British law did not actually call it, and was chemically castrated with estrogen injections. In 1954, two years after his trial, he died of cyanide poisoning, either suicide or accidental, depending on whether one listens to the coroner�s inquest or his mother and friends.

He was granted a posthumous pardon in 2013 by Queen Elizabeth, four years after then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an apology on the government�s behalf for Turing�s treatment.

The Imitation Game was given the nod for Best Picture, Best Director for Morten Tyldum, Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch, Best Supporting Actress for Keira Knightley, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Production Design, for a total of eight nominations. Hopefully, wherever he is, that is some small succor to Mr. Turing, who can also be relieved that Cumberbatch, who played him in the film, is considered �dreamy� by 95 percent of population. The other five percent thinks he looks like an alien.

For Best Original Song, The Lego Movie�s �Everything Is Awesome� was nominated. It is sung by the comedy group Lonely Island and lesbian twin sisters Tegan and Sara.

Julianne Moore is nominated for her starring role in Still Alice, about a linguist diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer�s. While the film and the actress are not gay, directors Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer are a couple.

Meryl Streep was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Into the Woods, based on the musical by out Broadway icon Stephen Sondheim and directed by Rob Marshall, produced by his husband John DeLuca. The film was also nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

Seriously, though, Cumberbatch has to be an alien. Those are not the eyes of a human being, no matter how great he is in Sherlock.