Benedict Cumberbatch: Oscars Are 'Overwhelming'

With a role as the most iconic detective of all time in the successful British series Sherlock, parts in two Oscar-nominated films from last year (War Horse and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and pivotal roles in two of the most anticipated movies of the next two years — The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and the as-yet-untitled Star Trek sequel, Benedict Cumberbatch, 35, is the man of the hour. So he better get used to the glitz of awards season real soon.

Cumberbatch watched the Oscars with his "very close" friend Lydia Hearst, the 27-year-old model daughter of famous 1960s abductee Patty Hearst and great-granddaughter of legendary newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, at the annually held Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party, before stopping in at the highly exclusive Vanity Fair after-party.

"It's extraordinary," he said of the whole infectious Oscar celebration. "Just wonderful to be invited to the party and feel like you belong to something as glamorous on any kind of level, he told ITV1's Daybreak on the red carpet leading up to the Vanity Fair event, reports Digital Spy.

The soon-to-be household name himself couldn't help but be starstruck. "The most extraordinary people who you've watched all your life are sort of sitting in the seat next to you or wandering to get a drink, going, 'Oh, I've just seen you in something.' I cannot believe it. And then, lots of them have seen Sherlock, which is great!"

As for the lovely woman on his arm, Hearst (who also goes by Hearst-Shaw, after her mother and father, Bernard Shaw) has been "friends" with Cumberbatch "a while now," a spokesperson for the actor told The Daily Mail. "But to say they are dating is probably too strong."

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