Officially, Rupert Murdoch should be rooting for "127 Hours" and "Black Swan," both films attached to Fox studios. But on the red carpet, he revealed that between the front-runners, "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network," he preferred "The King's Speech" for a very personal reason: his father's stutter was cured by Lionel Logue, the speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. "One hundred years ago, back in 1910, or something," Mr. Murdoch said.

"Basically that's how News Corp. started," Mr. Murdoch's wife, Wendi, added. "Because Lionel helped his father to overcome speech problems, he become confident, and then he founded News Corp."