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Fri 01 Jan 2007King of the contendersProlific actor and director Forest Whitaker may finally get that long-overdue Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. He tells Michael Dwyerhow a bit of digging revealed a different side to the man the world saw as a monsterBEING the frontrunner in the Oscars race has its drawbacks, not least because all the hype might convince voters that their support is superfluous, and there have been many instances where supposedly hot favourites fell at the final hurdle. Forest Whitaker has been scooping up awards from US critics' groups for his portrayal of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, but he was understandably reticent on the subject of Oscars when we met in London recently.