Well, this is a feel good story for me. What a genuinely likable actress Sandra Bullock is. From her early performances in pieces like The Thing Called Love (which featured an excellent performance by River Phoenix - his last) to a fun show like While You Were Sleeping, to her most recent works like The Proposal, she has great comedic timing and an honest quality that is very refreshing.
Congratulations, Sandra Bullock.
I love her -- she never seems to take herself terribly seriously, plus she's a hoot. She grew up in my neck of the densely-populated woods, so I also have that completely unearned sense of pride in our "local girl".
ReplyDeleteOf all the "public figures" who deserve better than to have their personal lives all over the tabloids -- it appears that her husband is no better than far too many Hollywood guys. It's really sad.
ReplyDeleteYes, well, she looked past that 'bad boy' persona and found the rough diamond within. Then he went and keyed her car with it.
ReplyDeleteI mean, this whole female attraction to bad boys is a little irritating to me, but I am getting used to it. Women like reclamation projects.
Well, I am a reclamation project. But I don't want to sign up for the reclamation part.
I mean, James is an idiot. Most men are. We have to work at it to figure things out, and it takes us years, and it really does help if there are some older guys around with some pull to guide us...otherwise our own success often results in our destruction. That's just the way of the design, and even nice guys are designed that way.
Just to be clear, I like women. I hear the howl of the hounds like any guy does. But it is a burden I am glad to accept. I prefer the struggle to no struggle. God put it there for a reason and he feels okay about it. Its a good thing.
ReplyDeleteBut life is much better when wisdom and judgment come into play in the decisions we make, and our actions should be guided by love, rather than self interest. It's a lifelong process.
Sandra Bullock is a gem.
ReplyDeleteAnd Jesse James being an idiot ... well, let's just say I wish I could say I was surprised.
Is this not pathetic? I remember Sandra Bullock coming onto the David Letterman show about the time she was getting married, and he asks...
So, did you lose a bet or something?
And that's about right. James was really lucky to get such a beautiful, intelligent, pleasant well grounded person. But you know, he still figured a way to mess things up. I guess the important thing is what happens next.
Nick, this is weird. Why would all you comments not have shown up yesterday?
ReplyDeleteWell, I am a reclamation project. But I don't want to sign up for the reclamation part.
You mean, you want to be loved for who you are, who you are trying to be, rather than for the parts of you someone else thinks she can fix?
Probably because I was deleting them as fast as I was writing them. The ones above are the cut down edited versions. A little too much steam in the pot on that one.
ReplyDeleteWomen historically seem to be enamored of 'bad boy' types. My guess is they find them more masculine and fascinating. I have my own experience with 'bad boy' types, and they are not all just biker gang wanna be's. The key unifying characteristic is the capacity to act with a complete disregard for the well being of others around them. They clean up and put on a show, but it is all chameleon like. There is no inner component to the outside gleam. It is all some elaborate hoax, and I find it tedious and insulting. I don't find the actual nature of 'bad boys' to be appealing at all, and it irritates me that women do. It's like watching a train wreck in slow mo.
I'd rather not the train wreck happen at all, but since women keep showing up desiring to be the new engineer, we keep having epic train wreck's, and often to people I like and would rather not watch get harmed.
There are examples in literature... Lydia running off with Mr. Wickham in Pride and Prejudice comes to mind. One could hardly be more dashing and exciting than Mr. Wickham. A most chraming man. And yet a more considered inspection showed that it was actually the rather dour Mr. Darcy who was a man of considerable merit, much to Elizabeth's surprise.
Oh, I do love Pride and Prejudice, not the least because Elizabeth and Darcy both have layers of self-awareness to cope with.
ReplyDeleteAs to the other, I don't know why women so often get seriously involved with "bad boy" types. I have to admit, there were certainly some "bad boys" I found really attractive when I was young, but I was very fortunate in recognizing early on that they would have expectations I would not be willing to meet, and never got involved. I'm also pretty sure I exuded "good girl", so almost never had to deal with "unwanted attentions."
But there are probably as many reasons some otherwise intelligent (grown-up) women fall for "bad boys" as there are types of bad boys. Whether it's the thrill of being chosen, or the belief that true love can heal the wounds, I don't know. Do you think that really is what happened with Sandra Bullock? I'd never heard of Jesse James before he married her, but tattoos or no, two divorces, (and a quick look at the exes), might give one pause.
But then, I have a friend who married a twice-divorced man 7 or 8 years ago, and I believe he's really a good guy. (There is a lot to be said for growing up.) So, maybe our Sandy just thought James was a quirky, regular-folks guy, different from the men she'd known so far in Hollywood...
It is awfully sad. Even if there's a lot less to the story than we've heard so far, even if they do decide to stay together (that poor little Sunny -- what a rotten deal), things will never be the same.
James Dean and Marlon Brando would be the two classic examples, but they reflected the underlying appeal rather than created something on their own. Were not all the rock star types trying to get mileage off the 'bad boy' appeal? And it was mileage they were after, by the way, when you cut to the chase. These guys weren't Mozarts. Wouldn't the current vampire craze reflect the same thing .. the brooding dark dangerous guy who really could love you and be good...if only you knew him and gave him the love he needs to be the truly whole person and blah blah blah. I'm sick of the guy. Listen, I was never considered a bad boy, but I was never really all that good. None of us are.
ReplyDeleteMy guess with Sandra Bullock is that she met a dangerous kind of guy out of her comfort zone, he was charming and far nicer than she had imagined, he ran with some 'dangerous' friends (but really most of those guys are cultivating a look for the same reason the rock star types went with the big hair), and she congratulated herself on looking past the rough exterior and difficult past and finding the diamond within. And he knows that and he plays that.
Don't get me wrong, he's a very valuable person. Certainly as valuable as I am. We all are. It's the things he does that I don't like. I don't appreciate the game he's up to and it irks me that a really classy gal like Sandra Bullock would let herself get taken up by it. I mean, he's a guy. Is it really all that complicated?
Speaking of Jane Austin (I've managed to get myself a tad on the rocks and I'd be wise to tack smartly and get off) there have been some very fine productions of her work. Have you seen the more recent version of "Persuasion" with Sally Hawkins playing the part of Anne? Now that would be a fun go for our movie club!
"You Can't Take It With You" turned out to be a fine selection. I think we should choose, well most anything really, but with a preference shown toward older movies and movies that we thought were either very well done or meaningful to us in some way.
Wouldn't the current vampire craze reflect the same thing .. the brooding dark dangerous guy who really could love you and be good...if only you knew him and gave him the love he needs to be the truly whole person and blah blah blah.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Especially the "blah, blah, blah" part. It's probably a developmental phase for adolescent females, like the crushes their younger sisters get on the pop stars whose voices haven't changed yet. (Huh. I wonder what it means that I never had that kind of crush. I had crushes, just not on that type. And yet, thinking about it, my friends did, which was OK, because that way we didn't have any conflict over who would "get" which idol. Young girls being nothing if not rational regarding the likelihood of ever actually encountering any such beings.)
How did I get here? Oh, well.
Anyway -- it occurs to me that, possibly, Sandra Bullock recognized the "bad boy" bit as a show-biz persona, and her mistake was in not seeing how deep it actually went.
Ahh, just wait 'til we get to Heaven and find out all the answers. ;)
"it occurs to me that, possibly, Sandra Bullock recognized the "bad boy" bit as a show-biz persona, and her mistake was in not seeing how deep it actually went."
ReplyDeletePossibly. But then one still needs to look past the tatooed porn star. Hmmm. Anyway, I wish her well.
Eww. I'd forgotten about the porn star.
ReplyDelete