‘Inception’ nabs four awards, one more than early awards-season fave ‘Social Network.’ By Eric Ditzian Colin Firth accepts award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for “The King’s Speech” Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images “The King’s Speech” entered the biggest night in Hollywood as the clear front-runner to win top honors and did not stumble at the 83rd Academy Awards , nabbing four wins out of 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Colin Firth, and Best Director for Tom Hooper. “Inception” ended up roping in four wins, as well, one better than “The Social Network,” which lost out in all the major categories after beginning awards season as a potential dominant Oscar presence yet losing momentum over the past month. The evening, in fact, unfolded without a single upset in the major categories, from Melissa Leo’s (“The Fighter”) early Supporting Actress win to the Best Picture triumph for “King’s Speech.” Firth could have begun penning his Best Actor acceptance speech months ago. When he finally got the chance late in the night, he began, “I have a feeling my career has just peaked” and ended, again self-deprecatingly, “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some impulses I have to attend to backstage.” A very pregnant Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) swept aside six-time nominee Annette Bening (“The Kids Are All Right”) for Best Actress. Entirely more serious than she was at the Golden Globes, when she laughed about getting to sleep with baby-daddy Benjamin Millepied, Portman instead ran through a dizzying list of thank-yous, acknowledging everyone from her parents to her publicists to director Darren Aronofsky, to whom she said, “You are fearless and a visionary.” Up until the minute the Directing award was handed out, no one could decide if Hooper or David Fincher (“The Social Network”) would end up the champ. In the end, Hooper soared on the strength of what he dubbed the “triangle of man love,” whose points apparently include Firth, Geoffrey Rush and the director himself. The show kicked off with a high-concept, “Inception”-inspired cold open as hosts James Franco and Anne Hathaway entered into the worlds of the Best Picture nominees and some beloved past films — from the boxing ring of “The Fighter” to the rehearsal studio of “Black Swan” to the time-traveling DeLorean from “Back to the Future.” The duo then sauntered out onto the stage at the Kodak Theatre and segued into a short, shared monologue in which Hathaway congratulated Franco on his Best Actor nomination and lamented that she wasn’t honored for her work in “Love & Other Drugs.” “It used to be, you get naked, you get nominated,” she joked. “Not anymore!” Wearing a tuxedo and high heels, Hathaway popped up later for a musical number , riffing on “On My Own” from “Les Mis
