Golden Globes give ‘Fleabag’s’ Hot Priest his due

The Hot Priest got his much predicted, and wildly deserved, Golden Globe nomination on Monday morning, allowing the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. to do the thing it loves second best: Make up for egregious television academy snubs.

And make no mistake, Andrew Scott, who plays the Hot (and deeply human) Priest in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “Fleabag,” was egregiously snubbed at this year’s Emmys. All of “Fleabag’s” female stars — Waller-Bridge, Olivia Colman, Sian Clifford and guest stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Fiona Shaw — were nominated, but Scott, whose character went viral, was not.

When Waller-Bridge swept her categories and “Fleabag” won for comedy series, the omission became pointedly ridiculous. The second, and last, season of the Amazon comedy turns on the emotionally and sexually charged relationship between Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Scott’s Hot Priest. Without Scott’s ability to make a farcical setup both heartbreaking and transformative, the show would have collapsed.

The level of difficulty in maintaining the fox joke alone cannot be overstated.

But then Scott is one of those actors who make it look so easy, whether “it” is a conflicted priest, a diabolically fey James Moriarty in “Sherlock,” an unraveling rideshare driver in an episode of “Black Mirror” or a gay Welshman returning to the home that rejected him in “Pride.” He was never nominated for his work in “Sherlock,” either (in part because Martin Freeman, who played Watson, was nominated in the supporting category during the season of the Moriarty story line).

While it’s rare for a nominee from a comedy to win the supporting actor category (which includes both comedy and drama), it is not unheard of. Anyway, it’s tough to think of a more dramatic character than the Hot Priest.

Also, as Fleabag might say, the trophy would look so good with his outfit.