Up until his late-night announcement last Friday

It was announced Friday night (2/11/11) that Michael Rosenblaum will be returning to Smallville to reprise his iconic personification of the classic Superman villain, Lex Luthor.  Mr. Rosenblaum is slated to reprise the role in the series finale that is airing on May 13th, 2011. This on the heels of Inside TV‘s earlier report that he wasn’t returning.  In facthad been reaffirming that since his last appearance on the show in 2008.  Yet after the latest publicized news bit about his non-returning status, fans lit up the comment sections and bulletin boards with what I can only deem as fervent frustration.  Though I felt the frustration others were feeling, I made the assumption he was pursuing different facets of his career that included distancing himself from the image of the genre role.  Saddened, yet understanding, I moved on.
In my mind, I feel like actors like to become recognized for higher quality roles as their career develops.  Val Kilmer has spent his career trying to make sure he was choosy in his roles. (I’m not sure how that’s going!)  George Clooney picked specific roles after ER, steering away from TV.  Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock did a few barbarian / fantasy roles but then started tackling other roles that did not fulfill the iconic roles that I first enjoyed seeing him in.  Walking Tall seemed to be one such project that bridged the fantasy-action film into …  other genres.  (Don’t ask me what Tooth Fairy was.  I couldn’t fathom a guess.)
That’s the mindset I have when I addressed Mr. Michael Rosenbaum’s decisions.
With his recent announcement that he is returning to for one last cameo, I found his statement about his return to Smallville tinge on understanding and even humorous, as he addressed the angry and even threatening “fans:”

“I’m delighted to return for the series finale. I’m simply doing it for all of the fans out there who made Smallville the great success it is. I appreciate all of their passion, their relentlessness and even their threats.”

Gang…  it’s one thing to be frustrated when an actor you like moves on, it’s another when you vent your frustration without giving it much thought.  No one owes anyone any apologies, but really, all it did is reflect on the kind of fan you are.  And that made you more the Smallville fan than the actor fan.  Trust me, I totally get being angry with someone who you feel outright wronged you.  It’s very frustrating but you have to look inward and understand one thing…  you had the wrong expectation of the other party.  Hence, they failed that expectation.
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Up until his late-night announcement last Friday night, I had been scrounging up information on why he wasn’t returning to the show because people on different website were questioning the authors stating they only saw the words written and no definitive proof.  I started digging around and came up with the “proof” and I also dug up some other info about Michael Rosenbaum.
Despite the new news that came out, I thought I’d share what I had, since I worked on the article all that day, starting on Friday morning preparing for an evening publication that night.  You’re probably asking, “All day?”  Normally an article doesn’t take all day to work on, but I’m recovering from surgery that I went through the day before.  I’m was a wee bit groggy and it was taking about an hour to write a paragraph.  At least initially it was. Good prescriptions really.  LOL.
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To date, Mr. Rosenbaum had been stating he’s.  Sure, many thought this was a slap in the face of Smallville fans, but I have felt that there were several factors that needed to be included in this scenario that ranges from landing some recent TV roles, creating his own projects and maybe, just maybe, taking his career and looking to move beyond the genre from that side of the camera.