Melissa Leo and Christian Bale win Academy Awards for their supporting roles in “The Fighter”

Since The Fighter was one of my favorite movies of 2010, it was wonderful to see one of my favorite actresses, Melissa Leo win the supporting actress Oscar for The Fighter.

A few days ago, I posted my interview with Melissa and remarked that I hoped the bad publicity for her Oscar ad campaign would not derail her status as the front-runner.

It did not!

Presenter Kirk Douglas, after a very long presentation, finally announced Melissa’s name.

She asked Douglas to pinch her once she got onstage then said: “When I watched Cate [Blanchett] two years ago, it looked so (F-word) easy.”

Yup! She dropped an F-bomb on the Oscars.

Bsckstage she apologized and explained: “There is a great deal of the English language that is in my vernacular.”

A short time after Miss Leo won her Oscar, the man who played her son in The Fighter, Christian Bale, took home the Oscar for supporting actor.

“What a room full of talented and inspirational people,” Bale said when he first took the stage. “What am I doing here?”

As he concluded his speech, Bale grew emotional and confessed: “I didn’t think I was like this. [Thanks to] my wonderful wife and our little girl, who’s taught me so much more than I’ll ever be able to teach her.”

For Bale, it was an uncommonly sentimental ending to a speech that began with good humor and a few laughs.