Emma wins second film gong

Emma Thompson is being feted for the second time in a week for her performance in Love Actually.

She has been voted Best British Actress for her role as a wife with a wayward husband in the Richard Curtis film, by readers of Empire Magazine. On Sunday she walked away with the Evening Standard Best Actress award.

Thompson, 44, was dressed in a low-cut black dress in contrast to her shocking pink at the Standard evening. She said: "To get two awards in one week is wonderful. It was a great film, and all these awards are a tribute to Richard Curtis." Curtis won the Best British Film - sweet revenge after some critics called it "crap, actually".

He said he now wants to follow the lead of his Blackadder cowriter Ben Elton and start writing musicals. Among the candidates to appear in his new project is former EastEnders star Martine McCutcheon, 27, who was voted Best Newcomer. Curtis praised her for her role in Love Actually - the maid who won the heart of the Prime Minister (Hugh Grant).

McCutcheon, who was plagued by a throat infection when she played Eliza Dolittle in the West End, confirmed her interest and said: "Music is what I love doing."

Other winners at the event at the Dorchester included Andy Serkis, who was named Best British Actor for playing Gollum in the Lord of the Rings films, and Sigourney Weaver, 54, who received the Career Achievement Award.

Uma Thurman was voted Best Actress for Kill Bill Vol 1, for which Quentin Tarantino was Best Director. Johnny Depp won Best Actor for Pirates of the Caribbean.