That woman! The Proposal gave new meaning to unorthodox romance with the love story of Margaret Tate and Andrew Paxton.
The 2009 rom-com followed the unconventional relationship between Margaret (Sandra Bullock) and her assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) after the book publisher learns she’s about to be deported. Margaret, who is from Canada, schemes to stay in the U.S. by making Andrew pretend to be her fiancé.
The twosome, however, get more than they bargained for while visiting Andrew’s family — including the sneaky Grandma Annie (Betty White) — in Alaska. After breaking the news of their engagement, the pair find themselves falling in love … despite their opposite personalities.
“We first met nine years ago [because] we had a mutual friend,” Reynolds told ET Canada in June 2009 of his relationship with Bullock. “We’ve just been friends ever since.”
The Deadpool actor noted that although he’d known the Miss Congeniality actress for years, they had never worked together. Their dynamic on set, however, was hard to deny.
“In terms of gelling together, chemistry is, I think, the last magical component left in Hollywood. It’s something you have no control over,” Reynolds explained. “It’s either there or it’s not. When it’s there it’s like winning the lottery. You really have to rise to the chemistry. We just had a ball.”
More than a decade after the movie hit theaters, Bullock and Reynolds reunited to celebrate White’s 98th birthday in a funny tribute video. In the clip, the former costars separately serenaded the Mary Tyler Moore Show alum before jokingly competing over White’s affection.
“From Sandy who loves you more than Ryan,” Bullock sang before the clip cut back to Reynolds interjecting, “From Ryan who loves you so much more than Sandy.”
The Buried actor added: “What does Sandy do for you every year? Does she, like, show up and hand-deliver flowers to you wearing nothing but black socks and a dozen gold bracelets, just like you requested? Doubt it.”
Nearly two years later, White died on December 31, 2021, just weeks ahead of her 100th birthday. Her Proposal costars later paid tribute to the late actress, with Reynolds tweeting, “The world looks different now. She was great at defying expectation. She managed to grow very old and somehow, not old enough. We’ll miss you, Betty. Now you know the secret.”
Bullock, for her part, told People that she planned to honor White’s memory by drinking vodka (the comedian’s favorite) “on ice, with a slice of lemon with a hot dog on the other side.” She added: “I’ll have to buy some rose-colored glasses because Betty was that for all of us.”
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Scroll down to see what the cast of The Proposal has been doing since 2009:
