Sandra

Isn't she beautiful?

And the girl at the top (or bottom) is almost as pretty, in a similar sort of way.

Actually, by normal girl standards, Bullock is nice-looking. But how she ever became a leading lady is a mystery. She looks more like the type who ought to be cast as the best friend of the romantic lead, you know, the ballsy one who's always making wisecracks.

Every now and then I'll see actors or actresses who seem to get roles for which their looks don't really qualify them, and I always find myself wondering. Did they have connections? Is this nepotism at work? Do they have a certain ethnic look which the producers wanted to promote? Is this the end result of the casting couch? Are they so likable that directors just want to give them work? Is this a case of the heroine in a chick flick being purposely cast so that she won't be threatening to the average female movie-goer?

Or am I just not seeing something which everyone else sees?

I have no idea what the story is with Bullock.

She was actually great in Crash, where she played the bitchy wife of the ambitious politician. And she was excellent in The Blind Side, where she played a stern, no-nonsense matriarch.

But she does seem miscast in roles where you're supposed to think, I want that.