Sandra Bullock: The perfect girl next door

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Sarah
You’re right, she doesn’t look 40 at all. My point is that, one of these days, she will, and when she does, she’d better have a back-up plan. It’s a tough enough job market for actresses Of A Certain Age, and the fact is, 1) Bullock doesn’t do accents, and 2) we already have an Annette Bening and a Helen Mirren.

As you pointed out, we also have a Meg Ryan, and one gracelessly aging Dowager Queen of Cute is more than enough as it is. I was joking about the Shakespeare — Bullock is too American-looking to pull it off, if that makes any sense — but she’s either going to develop a different skill set or she’s going to become a footnote.

None of this is Bullock’s fault, of course. It’s symptomatic of Hollywood, which believes that audiences will have, at best, a limited interest in mature women — except for supportive-wife and Stifler’s-mother-type roles that are basically background noise.

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But it seems like more of an issue for movie actresses; I don’t think TV is as youth-obsessed. I can think of a bunch of non-dewy actresses who get a lot to do on television, so if Bullock makes a believable detective, maybe the answer is to put her on a cop show. It’s not like there’s a shortage of “Law & Orders.” Why not give Jack McCoy a female ADA who can actually act?

Tara
Or better yet, why not put Ol’ Shaky out to pasture, replace him with Sandy, and give her a hot male assistant? A hot male assistant played by Ryan Gosling?

Sarah, oh my God. We are geniuses.

Sarah
I’ll get Dick Wolf on the phone right now.

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