Forest Whitaker picked up the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' best actor award tonight at the Royal Opera House in London, for portraying Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland. Whitaker's Oscar in two weeks will have people smiling from his hometown of Compton to his alma maters Palisades High School and USC. Legendary film editor Anne V. Coates, who won an Oscar for Lawrence of Arabia and edited last year's Catch and Release, accepted BAFTA's prestigious Academy Fellowship and I think surprised the crowd by revealing she lives in Los Angeles because of the weather and "valet parking."

Photo: AFP/Carl De Souza via Yahoo!