When we last encountered FBI agent Gracie Hart, she had just saved the Miss USA pageant, cleaned and glammed herself up to be a viable beauty-queen runner-up, made a ton of new friends and secured the affection of a hot fellow agent, Eric Matthews.
"Miss Congeniality" (2000), starring Sandra Bullock as Gracie, took in approximately $106 million at the box office.
Some 10 minutes into the sequel, "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous," which opened Thursday, Gracie's newfound celebrity forces her to give up undercover work. More significantly, she gets dumped. Agent Matthews disappears and is not replaced, and Gracie tumbles into a kind of love/hate relationship with her rough-edged female bodyguard and partner, Sam Fuller (played by Regina King).
We'll repeat that. What we have here is a comedy . . . a major studio release . . . starring prototypical girl next door Sandra Bullock . . . where Bullock's unlucky-in-love character . . . does not end up with the guy.
Can such things be?
Bet your wilted flowers and stale Valentine's Day candy on it, says Sandra Bullock, the producer.
"It wasn't a romantic comedy in the first place," says Bullock, who produced "Miss Congeniality 2," as well as the original, through her production company, Fortis Films. "I want women to be able to do the same thing that men get to do in comedies and say, 'That's a comedy.' Why does it always have to be a romantic comedy? Why does the girl have to end up with the guy? Why can't it be a buddy film?"
As long as Bullock is calling the shots, the answers to those last questions would appear to be "She doesn't" and "It can."
"Sandy's very smart, and she knows what she's done before," says Enrique Murciano, who plays a cute FBI agent with whom Gracie Hart does not become romantically involved. "I think she said in her mind, 'There's a great opportunity to make this a buddy movie.' I think she recognized that opportunity and went for it."
Benjamin Bratt, Michael Caine and Candice Bergen — all of whom were in the original — are absent from the sequel, although Heather Burns, Ernie Hudson and William Shatner return. Romance-free though it may be, "Congeniality 2" is certainly a comedy. In addition to Bullock and King nearly beating the tar out of each other on a regular basis, the story — set primarily in Las Vegas — features outrageous costumes, an over-the-top personal stylist (played by Diedrich Bader), running Dolly Parton gags and plenty of high-jinks. More important for its star/producer's purposes, the film also has something to say.
"I think it's (an) important (message) for anybody who feels like they don't fit, or they're unique, or they don't belong to the masses," says Bullock. "What is normalcy? There's no such thing. Society is trying to control us like cattle. We can all live together and have different opinions."
Bullock — "Sandy" to her "Congeniality 2" cast and crew — is dressed in a peasant top over jeans. Leafing through a brochure in an upscale Beverly Hills hotel, the Washington, D.C., native, now 40, muses, "It's good to know where you can get Christian Dior watches in case you're in the market for one. Which I'm not. But all right. I'm going to keep this."
Characterizing herself as "not a good celebrity," Bullock nonetheless conducts her film promotion duties with easy grace and humor. "Congeniality 2" is her first acting role since the $200 million-grossing "Two Weeks Notice" (2002), which she also produced. Her upcoming projects include an against-type role in the ensemble of "Crash" for writer/director Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby") and playing Nell Harper Lee in the Truman Capote-themed film "Every Word Is True." She'll also reunite with her "Speed" co-star, Keanu Reeves, in the upcoming "Il Mare."
Behind the scenes, Bullock has been an executive producer of "The George Lopez Show" since its debut, occasionally turning in a cameo acting appearance. She recently donated $1 million to tsunami relief efforts. When the topic of her philanthropy is raised, Bullock simply says, "I was able."
"I love the work," she says, "The rest of it, I don't quite know how to handle, and I don't do it well. I don't do the things that would make a good celebrity. I get irritated when I'm doing it. I'm like, 'This isn't about the work,' But I have to remind myself, it is kind of about the work; I'm promoting it, but I don't feel I'm going to bring anything to the table to promote anything that has nothing to do with the work. You get nothing that is outside of the building."
Bullock is, according to her "Congeniality 2" co-stars and director John Pasquin, every bit a "hands-on producer," involving herself in everything from location scouting to soundtrack selection to casting, rewriting and even editing, "until I locked her out of the room," jokes Pasquin.
"She has an opinion, she's not afraid to express her opinion, but she is not dogmatic," says Pasquin ("The Santa Clause," "Jungle 2 Jungle"), who took over the directing duties from original "Congeniality" director Donald Petrie. "She's the money, and she's the reason people will come to see the movie, so it's important. Certainly, everybody at Warner Bros. and everybody at Castle Rock felt you're in the Sandy Bullock business, so you listen to what she says."
"It's my job. I do what a producer does," returns Bullock about a job whose duties she happens to love: the selecting, the delegating, the obsessing over songs that don't quite fit or the sound that could be funnier.
"Three weeks ago, we were in the final dub, trying to work the music, and we were down to the last Red Vine and laying on the floor," she says. "I like that process of the drama and how we figure it out."
Before she took to acting, said Bullock — the daughter of a voice coach and an opera singer — she enjoyed the technical elements of performance. "I'd do school theater productions, and I'd always be on the technical side. You had to do that. If you didn't get a part, you were working the lights."
Many years later, of course, Bullock may seem like she's multitasking, but she claims producing is all about knowing how to delegate, hiring the best people available — including those who will make the star/producer shine brighter — and letting them do their jobs.
Which is also true of casting. From the get go, Bullock says she was looking for an equal on-screen partner to help Gracie carry the film. She found that partner in kindred spirit King ("Ray," "Jerry Maguire"). So it's Fuller who does a Tina Turner impersonation to gain access to a key dressing room, with Bullock's Gracie wearing a showgirl outfit and hand-jiving in the background.
"She's just a fearless person," King says of Bullock. "She allows another actress to come in and not feel intimidated. She's all about telling a good story, not 'I want to look good,' or 'I want to shine.' She's like, 'I'm the producer. My name is above the title. If I do a good job and make sure everything in the movie is good, then I'm better.' "
"We're going to be the new Mel Gibson and Danny Glover," Bullock says. "We're on the road."