Heath Ledger is on the verge of becoming the hottest certainty to land an Academy Award in the event's history.

According to bookmakers William Hill, the actor is 1-50 to land the Best Supporting Oscar gong - the shortest odds ever.

He shares the honour with Helen Mirren when she was nominated for Best Actress for The Queen and went on to win at the 2007 ceremony.

Like Mirren, Heath has already landed a BAFTA and Golden Globe for his role as The Joker in Batman movie The Dark Knight ahead of the glitzy bash on Sunday.

But bookies say the odds are set to get even shorter ahead of the ceremony, with some online bookmakers already offering staggering odds of 1-100.

William Hill spokesman Rupert Adams told Mirror.co.uk that none of the other nominees in Heath's category - Michael Josh Brolin for Milk, Robert Downey Junior for Tropic Thunder, Philip Seymour Hoffman for Doubt and Michael Shannon for Revolutionary Road - stood a chance.

He said: "Heath is such an absolute certainty you've got to feel a bit sorry for the fellow nonimees. They have no absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning."

Rupert also said Slumdog Millionaire was virtually guaranteed to win Best Movie to the extent they were only offering odds of 1-10.

In fact, of all the six major categories covered by William Hill, Rupert said all the favourites were shoo-ins to win, with British director Danny Boyle also at ridiculously short odds of 1-12 to win.

The only possible upset he could see was that Sean Penn may pip Mickey Rourke to win the Best Actor Oscar.

According to CNN.com, "The idea that Heath Ledger won't win for "The Dark Knight" is so unthinkable, I can only imagine mass walk-outs at the ceremony and riots breaking out across the country if it doesn't come to pass."


A Discussion Topic has already been started. CLICK HERE.