Leo and Helen triumph in our online Oscar poll

February 22, 2007Feb 22, 2007, 11:00 PM GMT

It looks like Helen Mirren is set for one of the most secure Oscar victories in the history of the ceremony, after hellomagazine.com readers voted her the person most likely to take home the best actress gong on Sunday night.

They may also have predicted one of the night's traditional big shocks if the Academy agrees that Leonardo DiCaprio, rather than hot favourite Forest Whitaker, should be the man adding a best actor statuette to his mantlepiece.

At the close of voting over 17,000 votes had been cast by hellomagazine.com readers keen to show their support for favourite movies and performers.

Martin Scorsese, having failed to follow through on his previous four best director nominations, clearly has the people on his side this time around. Half those voting felt he should get the coveted statuette this time round for crime thriller The Departed.

His film failed to take the number one spot in the best picture category of our poll, however. That position went to Babel which, with 37 per cent of the vote, had a ten per cent lead on Stephen Frears' acclaimed movie The Queen.

Babel cast member Cate Blanchett garnered 39 per cent of the votes, making her the favourite to win the best supporting actress gong, ahead of Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson who took a quarter of the votes. She was closely followed by Abigail Breslin, the young actress who won hearts as a wannabe beauty pageant queen in low budget hit Little Miss Sunshine.

Leading the best actor category was Leonardo, who's clearly impressed audiences with his role as a South African diamond mercenary in Blood Diamond. The hunky actor landed 40 per cent of the vote, pipping to the post hot favourite The Last King Of Scotland actor Forest Whitaker and Will Smith, in the running for his role in The Pursuit Of Happyness.Readers also decided Blood Diamond's Djimon Hounsou was the man they most wanted to see taking home the best supporting actor title, awarding him nearly half the votes. Mark Wahlberg and Eddie Murphy were left firmly in the Benin-born actor's wake with 25 and 14 per cent respectively.

Dame Helen, who captured audiences' hearts as Elizabeth II in The Queen, beat Spanish star Penelope Cruz into second place, and Kate Winslet into third.

If our online poll turns out to be an accurate prediction of Sunday night's awards there could be a big upset, as Leo trumps Forest in the best actor category. The Blood Diamond hunk won a convincing 40 per cent of the votes

Oscar favourite Dame Helen was voted best actress in the poll ahead of fellow Brits Kate Winslet and Judi Dench

Martin Scorsese could be about to end his Oscar drought. Readers put him at the top of the best director category with half of the votes

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