*”The King’s Speech” was crowned best picture Sunday at an Academy Awards ceremony as precise as a state coronation. The monarchy drama won an expected four Oscars, and predictable favorites claimed acting honors.
Colin Firth as stammering British ruler George VI in “The King’s Speech” earned the best-actor prize, while Natalie Portman won best actress as a delusional ballerina in “Black Swan.”
The boxing drama “The Fighter” captured both supporting-acting honors, for Christian Bale as a boxer-turned-drug-abuser and Melissa Leo as a boxing clan’s domineering matriarch.
“The King’s Speech” also won the directing prize for Tom Hooper and the original-screenplay Oscar for David Seidler, a boyhood stutterer himself.
