Sources say Dame Helen Mirren may be invited to tea at Buckingham Palace after being crowned Best Actress at the Oscars yesterday for her stoic portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose role in royal media management in the wake of Princess Diana's 1997 car crash was portrayed in the movie, has also hailed Mirren's latest award success.

Mirren, 61, was given the Best Actress Academy Award at the glitzy Oscars ceremony in Hollywood yesterday.

That has lead to speculation that she may be rewarded with a date with the woman she portrayed in The Queen.

A meeting with Her Majesty would follow a glittering clean sweep for the British actress this awards season after the role garnered her a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

At the Oscars, the film's director Stephen Frears suggested that he, Mirren and screenwriter Peter Morgan would visit the real queen at Buckingham Palace in March.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman says a range of possibilities are being considered.

"We are sure that the Queen will be pleased at Dame Helen's success," he told AFP.

"All options are being looked at regarding future entertainment."

He could not say whether the monarch had seen The Queen privately, but pointed out that she regularly attended film premieres.

Queen Elizabeth often spends her evenings in her private quarters, watching television with supper on a tray before retiring to bed.

In her Academy Award-winning turn, Mirren depicts Queen Elizabeth II as a resolute sovereign, bound by tradition and protocol, who wrestles with public pressure to shed her veneer of propriety and grieve alongside her nation after Princess Diana's death in 1997.

British Prime Minister Blair has praised the actress, a veteran of British television dramas, though his spokesman admitted the politician had not seen The Queen.

The relationship between the sovereign and Mr Blair, then fresh in the job as Queen Elizabeth's 10th British Premier, features prominently in the film.

"It takes a very special actress to take on a role of this kind and to do so to universal acclaim," he said.

"Helen Mirren is a very special kind of actress and her Oscar is richly deserved."

- AFP