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Sandra Bullock earned the nickname "The girl next door" of Hollywood. "Girl Next Door?" responded comedian and columnist Chris McEvoy. "Which suburb? 'Cause I’m moving there." So as she hits the big screen in her latest movie, the engagement-drama The Proposal, we bring you 24 facts.
*One of them is false (in other words a lie). See if you can guess which.
1. Sandra Bullock was born into a Virginia suburb at 3.15am.
2. Although she has a wholesome girl next door image, she spent her early childhood on the road, with her German opera singer mom and voice coach dad.
3. She has one sister, Gesine, who broke Sandra’s nose while opening a garage door when they were kids. But the scar on her face is from when she fell into a lake and cut her head on a rock. Sandra has still not sued sister Gesine, who is now a lawyer and active in the business side of the film industry.
4. She was a cheerleader in high school. And she was voted "Most Likely to Brighten up Your Day" by her class. No kidding…
5. Sandra learned both singing and German from her mom, and played a country singer in the 1993 movie The Thing Called Love (opposite the late River Phoenix). She both wrote and performed a song she sang in the movie, "Heaven Knocking on My Door".
6. She studied formally at East Carolina University in North Carolina, and afterwards moved to New York to work as a waitress.
7. She’s made many "most beautiful" lists, including People Magazine (1996, 1999), and the UK’s Empire (1997). Empire also picked her as one of their 100 sexiest stars in 1995 and again in 2007.
8. Sandra’s been the substitute a couple of times, replacing Demi Moore in 1995’s While You Were Sleeping and Lori Petty in Demolition Man (1993).
9. She’s allergic to horses.
10. Sandra was considered for the lead in Runaway Bride (1999) but didn’t get the part. Nobody can confirm if this had anything to do with the horseback scenes.
11. She had her first movie hit with the action thriller Speed (1994) opposite Keanu Reeves. It made her a huge star. She and Reeves would team up again 12 years later for supernatural romance The Lake House.
12. The awful Speed 2: Cruise Control sequel, set on a boat, sank without a trace and wasn’t great for her reputation.
13. Sandra wrote a script for a Speed comedy "threequel" set on an aeroplane, called Speed 3: Crash Landing, but the project was canned when the World Trade Centre was bombed in 2001.
14. Sandra frequently donates money to charity, and gave $1 million to the Red Cross after the September 11 attacks, and another $1 million to aid the tsunami victims in 2004.
15. For her role as a recovering alcoholic in 28 Days (2000), Bullock did research by spending time in a rehab facility.
16. Sandra’s favourite drinks? Beer and tequila.
17. Some of the scenes in Miss Congeniality (2000) were shot in Sandra’s own house.
18. How did she stay thin enough to play a model? Well, she uses acupuncture to control her weight.
19. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was unveiled in March 2005.
20. Sandra’s seen her share of missed opportunities. She was slated to play the heroine in the Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby, as well as in Prime, opposite Meryl Streep. Uma Thurman stepped into the role instead.
21. Her favourite time of the day? Dusk.
22. Sandra played acclaimed author Harper Lee in the overlooked Truman Capote biopic Infamous (2006). Why was it overlooked? Well, the movie’s timing was terrible. It was released in the shadow of another Capote biopic, which starred Philip Seymour Hoffman as Capote and Catherine Keener as Lee. Both Hoffman and Keener were Oscar-nominated for their performances. Sandra was not.
23. She’s married to motorcycle nut Jesse James and was previously engaged to TV actor Tate Donovan, who was also engaged to marry Jennifer Aniston at one point (pre-Brad, obviously).
24. Sandra is also a one-time cougar! She briefly dated her Murder By Numbers co-star Ryan Gosling when she was 38 and he was just 21.
