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ASK HALF the population, and they'll tell you: Sandra Bullock is a woman's woman. With her loopy grin, goofy demeanor, and on-screen penchant for sloppy hair and sweatpants, she's a toast to real life and a celebration of our shortcomings. She's the kind of gal who reminds you of your best friend, someone you can introduce to your boyfriend with no fear that you'll be going home alone.
But check in with the other half of the human race, and they'll tell you Bullock was clearly invented in the same heaven as football and stock car racing. That smile, that silliness, and that resolute lack of glamour only serve to underscore that Bullock is perfection itself. She doesn't seduce men just to threaten to ice-pick 'em to death. And if you were so lucky as to have your beloved girlfriend introduce you to her, you might find your ethics less steady than you had thought.
''Men treat me like someone they feel comfortable with, talking guy talk,'' says Bullock. ''I'm a good ear for men and a good voice for the woman's side.'' Bullock's the bridge across the gender gap. She's an equal-opportunity goddess, and this has been her year to reign. True, her kingdom has tended to be blue-collar terra firma, ever since she drove her own bus (all right, so Keanu Reeves helped out with directions) and kicked her career into overdrive in last year's Speed.
But these days, she doesn't need the help of a superstar stud to open a movie. Witness last spring's $81 million-grossing romantic comedy While You Were Sleeping, in which one of Bullock's handsome costars, Peter Gallagher, spends most of the movie in a coma. In a mark of how long a year can be in Hollywood, Bullock had to fight for the role of the terminally lonely token-booth clerk who finally finds love with the coma man's brother (Bill Pullman). ''It was a coming-of-age film for me,'' she says, ''the beginning of this never-ending book of surprises.''
The next chapter involved fighting agoraphobia and computer kamikazes in The Net, a film that again portrayed Bullock as a lovelorn loner. While The Net was proving its star's drawing power by raking in a respectable $50 million, Bullock was dashing off to Nova Scotia to film the comedy Two if by Sea (opening in January), in which she plays Denis Leary's gum-snapping girlfriend, and flying down to Mississippi for a supporting role in next summer's thriller A Time to Kill, directed by Joel Schumacher and based on John Grisham's best-seller. (For her brief star turn, Bullock was reportedly paid the ungoddessly sum of $8 million, making it one of the most lucrative supporting roles in history.)
Bullock may not emit the sleek-chic persona of colleagues Sharon Stone and Demi Moore, but she doesn't have to -- audiences pay to watch her keep her underwear on. So does Hollywood, which has recently bedecked her with $10.5 million (according to New Line) or $11 million (according to her representatives) to play nurse to Chris O'Donnell's Ernest Hemingway in Richard Attenborough's In Love and War. ''The same day I found out about the money, I also found out that this small film I produced with my friends [The Mailman, about a postal worker who goes crazy] was going to Sundance,'' Bullock says. ''Life is good, big time.''
