AP ImagesIs there no royal Colin Firth can't admirably portray? Sure, he's played King George (and has the statues to prove it), but who knew the Brit also had a bit of Prince Charming in him?
Well, thanks to his suave saving of BAFTA-winning damsel in distress Meryl Streep during yesterday's ceremony—everyone.
Firth had the honor of handing out the Best Actress trophy at yesterday's London shindig, reading out—to no one's real surprise—Meryl's name for her work in The Iron Lady.
And that's when the trouble started.
Surely if anyone's had enough practice walking from her seat to an awards-distributing podium, it's Streep, but something went awry this time and she tripped up the steps on her way to collecting her gilded mask. After a few hesitant looks back, she continued on to the podium (not without one final ungraceful misstep), only to have the audience realize her trip-up had caused her to lose a shoe on the stairs.
Naturally, it was Colin to the rescue, as he dashed over not only to collect Meryl's glass slipper high heel, but to gallantly hold it in place as she slipped it back on before delivering her speech to rapturous and encouraging applause (and, OK, a few good-natured laughs).
"Thank you so much," she said, laughing. "That couldn't be worse. That couldn't have gone worse. Oh gosh."
Actually, we can't imagine that have going any better.
That is, until host Stephen Fry returned to the podium and punctuated the recent unfoldings: "Prince Charming tried the slipper on and it fitted Cinderella at once. What a happy ending."
It's a downright fairy tale.