Sandra Bullock: The Star Next Door

Bullock is becoming well known enough to show up on tabloid TV a time or two. So far, though, the "exposés" have been strictly vanilla stuff. "Every time 'Hard Copy' thinks my face needs to be up there," she says, "the most exciting thing they can turn up is to show me, like, staggering through an airport half asleep with no makeup on. Too bad they weren't there the other day when I got off the plane from Chicago and my car wouldn't start. Now, there was news."

No one seems able to throw much shade on Bullock's sunny, unthreatening appeal. The only big money she's blown recently is on a handsome but not palatial fixer-upper house and a gleaming new BMW for her parents. When pressed, she admits to watching late night TV and being "mesmerized by the infomercial for The Principal Secret, Victoria Principal's skin care line. I was, like, 'Oh my God, this must really work,' and I'm, like, writing down the address furiously. I'm thinking, I'm going to be able to go on TV and say, 'Victoria, this is great, I feel 20 years younger.' The next day, though, I got over it. But I almost ordered it."

She laughs. "One of these days, I figure I've got to make up a whole scandal about myself. But, the way I look at it, sometime I'm going to do something that's going to make it fun for people to give Sandy a hard time. Something where I feel I'm making a smart move, like taking a role or having a relationship with somebody, but that other people are going to see as really stupid." Considering that her most recent relationship was with actor Tate Donovan, whom she met while making Love Potion No. 9, I can't help asking, "Why not plunge headlong into a torrid affair with another of your leading men?" She's already worked with raw material that might appeal to a wide range of tastes: Keanu Reeves, Sylvester Stallone, Bill Pullman, Peter Gallagher. Any sparks?

"I'm really good at keeping things separate," she asserts. "I say, 'Acknowledge that, sure, he's cute and you have chemistry with him, but go home in separate cars. Allow a crush to ride out for two weeks. If it lasts for two weeks, after which time you notice that they sneeze and put on their trousers just like anyone else, then maybe there's something there.' But you still don't have to act on it." Okay, then, how about marrying a gorgeous scuzzbuckel? She squares her shoulders, steadies her quivering lip like a '40s movie diva and throbs out: "Then I could go on TV and say, 'So what? He was a good person. Society turned him rotten.'"

Well, a girl's got to act out in some way. How, since she appears to be so well-adjusted, has she managed to cope with all the sudden attention? "Because of Dr. Seuss, the greatest philosopher of my time," she answers. "Of my time. Seriously, I carry three of his books around everywhere I go. It's my version of therapy and it only costs me $30 because I keep giving out his books to other people and have to keep replacing them. Dr. Seuss is just so amazing. The older you get, the more you gel the double meanings."

Not even cats in hats can get one through some of the dark Hollywood nights of the soul. What else sees Bullock through the stresses of building a career? "I am a huge, huge salsa freak," she confesses, pronouncing salsa in a way that conjures up percolating rhythms, steamy glances, undulating hips. "I've been doing it for two years straight every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night, like clockwork. I started with salsa, but I'm learning next flamenco and tango because, I guess, those are dances where you have to trust your partner. You have to be so comfortable because it's almost like making love on the dance floor. Nothing makes me happier than dancing. Nothing. It transforms me. The only time I feel completely sensual and sexy and alive is when I'm dancing. It's the only time I'll let out what I know exists inside of me, because I'm in a safe environment in which I can explore that. Eating and salsa are kind of like sex, they just make you feel all-around good. And I am obsessed with it."

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