Royal Thumbs Up: The Queen Likes 'The King's Speech'

Royal Thumbs Up: The Queen Likes 'The King's Speech'

Published: February 04, 2011 @ 3:10 pm
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By Steve Pond

All along the campaign trail for "The King's Speech," director Tom Hooper and screenwriter David Seidler and star Colin Firth have been asked if the British royal family has seen the movie, and what they think of it.  

Queen Elizabeth IIThe standard response: we don't know – and even if they do see it, we probably won't hear about it.

Now, according to the Sun, it turns out that Queen Elizabeth II has in fact seen, and liked, the film that deals with her father's struggle against a speech impediment.

And we're all going to hear about it, because the Weinstein Company has sent out a press release drawing attention to the Sun story.

According to Sun editor Duncan Larcombe, the queen – who is played in the film by young actress Freya Wilson – "enjoyed a private viewing" of the film at Sandringham House, the royal family's country house in Norfolk.

Colin FirthThe verdict, from someone identified only as "a source": "[S]he found it moving and enjoyable. She was clearly amused by some of the lighter moments."

And she was said to be particularly impressed by Colin Firth's portrayal of her father.

According to the Weinstein Company release, the film has also "been seen and admired" by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince Andrew, Lord and Lady William Astor, Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill and Edwina Sandys, the granddaughter of Winston Churchill.

Take that, all you film critics who preferred the other movie.

Tags: Academy Awards, Awards, Colin Firth, oscars, Queen Elizabeth, The King's Speech, Tom Hooper
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The Odds is an informed, bemused, skeptical and authoritative look at all aspects of the Academy Awards race. Steve Pond, author of the L.A. Times bestseller The Big Show, has been covering this particular circus for more than two decades, much of that time as the only reporter with full backstage and rehearsal access to the Oscar show.

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