Quendrith Johnson

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent

This weekend Julia Roberts and Sandra Bullock, two screen queens with a long history together, walked the same red carpet separately at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Julia with her Veronica Lake peekaboo combover, and Sandra Bullock doe-eyed in pink and orange.

They both looked, well, lovely, relaxed. Yet, there is always that tension. That Sweetheart Question.

Nobody was the wiser, except maybe the two of them, that a debate about them has been raging for some time.

It's an issue even George Clooney can't solve, since he has a foot in both camps, so to speak. And so the issue must be solved in the press. Right here, right now...

Once upon a time in Hollywood, Julia Roberts could do no wrong.

She was everywhere, the Pretty Woman owned this town. Whereas, down the salary ladder by a lot, was Sandra Bullock, America's Hardest Working Actress. Somehow, say around 2013, they switched roles. And now there's that thorny issue of Who is America's Sweetheart.

Not too long ago, Julia Roberts went on the record to say Jennifer Lawrence was "too cool" to be America's Sweetheart; whereby Jennifer Lawrence archly asked "Who is Julia Roberts?" Ouch.

All along, Sandra Bullock, while privately and publicly taking a personal beating, somehow managed to get voted in as America's (Real) Sweetheart. Sometimes the big titles don't get passed down by the reigning placeholder, sometimes the public votes with its heart.

And in 2014, there is no doubt that the 49-year old versatile workhorse has won that election. There won't be a recount, Sandra Bullock is America's Sweetheart.

But it was long in coming. After the breathless success of Speed in her early career, Sandra slogged on in some strange and unusual places. She was in The Net (1995), Making Sandwiches (short film 1998), and generally using her Practical Magic (1998) for more than 28 Days (2000) to become Miss Congeniality (2000) and Miss Congeniality 2: Armed & Fabulous five years later. Then she went from being Infamous (2006) to getting a Proposal (2009) to hitting us on The Blind Side (2009).

Now for the 2013 Oscar race, Sandra Bullock is showing her gravitas in Gravity. Next, in 2015, she will bring back The Heat with Melissa McCarthy, another undersung hero of the screen.

While Julia Roberts has done Erin Brockovich (2000) to Oscar delight, been down with The Mexican (2001) and even in the obviously titled America's Sweethearts (2001), and dazzled in Ocean's Twelve (2004), and subsequent male-driven bodies of water, she has never had her own franchise. She has never fronted a picture that pulled the $700 M USD Gravity numbers either. 

No doubt the 46-year-old was apt in Closer (2004) driven by the brilliant Mike Nichols, and even got to pull Meryl Streep's hair in August: Osage County (2013), Julia Roberts somehow abandoned us as viewers, whereas Sandra Bullock was right there with us all along - fighting the good fight, on screen and in her personal life (read: That Tattooed Buffoon Buzzkill Ex-husband).

So it is time to formally recognize Sandra Bullock as the reigning Sweetheart, the one that never got away, complained about the ravages of fame or starred in a movie about it (read: Notting Hill, Julia).

Consider the Sweetheart Wars officially over.

All this comes with a disclaimer, however: Neither Sweetheart candidate should in anyway surpass the unarmed and fabulous Cate Blanchett, who, as Blue Jasmine's withering Jasmine, should win this year's Best Actress Oscar.

But 2013 should be remembered as the year we had the finest roster of female actors since 1939.

# # #