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."
"Did Sandra Bullock's ScarJo kiss kill her great speech?"
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Believe it or not, some of us enjoyed it: Unlike other "surprise" celebrity girl-on-girl lip locks in the past, says Luisita Lopez Torregrosa in Politics Daily, "there was nothing fake or sleazy about" the Johansson-Bullock kiss. Bullock is "America's Sweetheart" and Johansson is a known "lesbian muse." The kiss was a "dream" matchup for fans of these leading ladies. And despite her "personal ordeal," Bullock "looked great." What more can you ask for?
"Sandra Bullock and Scarlett Johansson on MTV: The perfect kiss?"
Bad move — but not that bad: The "painfully scripted" kiss, says Tracy Clark-Flory in Salon, did seem "a rather sad attempt to remind the world that Bullock's still got sex appeal, despite having been cheated on and publicly humiliated." That said, Bullock "certainly could have done worse than to distract from her scandal-ridden personal life with antics that seem downright wholesome in comparison." Either way, Bullock is, thankfully, here to stay.
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