Geoffrey Rush glad at Oscar loss as it 'shares the wealth'

Geoffrey Rush was pleased he lost the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Christian Bale.

The Australian star - who was nominated in the category for the role of speech therapist Lionel Logue in 'The King's Speech' - was beaten by Christian for his role in 'The Fighter', but believes it was right for him to win because it "shared" the success between their respective pictures.

He said: "It all seemed to fall into the trajectory of what people thought would happen, which is good. Sharing the wealth."

The 59-year-old actor was also supportive of the opening skit - which featured hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco in a series of parodies of popular 2010 movies - saying it was a "brilliant" idea.

He told USA Today: "That's where you get the essence of the movies, those memorable images. I think it was brilliant as a comic idea."

'The King's Speech' picked up a total of four awards including Best Actor for Colin Firth and Best Director for Tom Hooper.

Geoffrey's co-star and nominee in the Best Supporting Actress category Helena Bonham Carter also failed to pick up her award.