Sandra Bullock's 'MTV-manufactured' return

Did a staged kiss between Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johansson ruin the tabloid-battered Bullock's return to the Hollywood spotlight?

At Sunday night's MTV Movie Awards, actress Sandra Bullock made one of her first public television appearances since splitting with her adulterous husband, Jesse James, in March. "No matter what you might have seen, or heard, or read lately," said Bullock, while accepting the MTV Generation Award, "I love what I do. And I'm not going anywhere." Near the end of her speech, however, Bullock embraced award presenter Scarlett Johansson for a scripted gay kiss, then asked everyone to "please go back to normal." Did this faux-lesbian gimmick tarnish Bullock's otherwise "graceful" return? (Watch Bullock kiss Scarlett Johansson.)

The kiss was just a hackneyed PR marketing ploy: Bullock's "winning speech" was "worthy of the standing ovation she earned en route to the stage," says Michelle Ruiz in Pop Eater. But "did Bullock really need an MTV-manufactured girl-on-girl smooch to prove she's 'back to normal?'" I "think not." The kiss was "so haphazardly inserted ... that even Bullock seemed a little embarrassed." Bullock has thus far handled herself just fine. She "didn't need awkward spit-swapping to jazz it up."

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