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‘The King’s Speech’ wins Best Picture; Firth and Portman nab top acting awards at 2011 Oscars

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It was The King’s Sweep.

The story of stammering British ruler George VI reigned at the Academy Awards last night, with “The King’s Speech” winning Best Picture and taking Oscars for Best Actor Colin Firth, Best Director Tom Hooper and Best Original Screenplay for David Seidler.

And the queen of last night’s Oscars was an emotional Natalie Portman, whose torment on the screen turned into triumph when she took the Best Actress award for “Black Swan.”

The 29-year-old mom to be wept openly as she accepted the award, saying, “I’m so grateful to do the job that I do.”

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In accepting the top award for Best Film, “King’s” co-producer Iain Canning bowed to his powerful cast.

“To our acting royalty — Colin, Geoffrey [Rush], Helena [Bonham Carter] — thank you so much for saying yes,” he said.

The boxing drama “The Fighter” claimed both supporting-acting honors, for Christian Bale as a boxer-turned-drug-abuser and Melissa Leo as his domineering mother.

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The Oscar battle pitted “The King’s Speech” against “The Social Network” — but until the big winners were announced, the F-bomb got all the attention.

When Leo took the stage at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles to accept her Best Supporting Actress prize, she stunned the A-list crowd with an expletive.

“When I watched Cate [Blanchett] two years ago, it looked so f- -king easy!” she blurted.

Later, Bale tweaked the actress for her censored blooper:

“I’m not going to drop the F-bomb like she did, but I’ve done it plenty,” he joked, in reference to his notorious blow-up on the set of “Terminator: Salvation.”

Leo apologized backstage.

The awards contest could have been dubbed “The Digital Generation versus the Greatest Generation,” and the kids gained an early edge, with “The Social Network,” a tale of Facebook’s origins written by Aaron Sorkin, earning awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score and Achievement in Film Editing.

The writing award for Seidler capped a lifelong dream for the boyhood stutterer born in London in 1937, a year after George took the throne.

Seidler, who overcame his own stammer at age 16, had long vowed one day to write about the monarch whose fortitude set an example for him in childhood.

The film includes two scenes in which the king spouts profanities, and Seidler thanked Queen Elizabeth II, daughter of King George, “for not putting me in the Tower of London for using the Melissa Leo F-word.”

The 83rd annual awards were hosted by “beautiful people” James Franco and Anne Hathaway.

And they promptly poked fun at the concept.

“You look so beautiful and so hip,” Franco told Hathaway, who joked back, “You look very appealing to a younger demographic as well.”

Although it was Hollywood’s big night, New York got some love — with kids from PS 22 on Staten Island channeling Judy Garland to sing the 1939 Academy Award winning song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to close out the show.

Last night’s Best Song winner was “We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3.”