By Kyle Osborne
Did I ever tell you about the time that Sandy Bullock’s mom called me at work? I was thinking about that tonight for the first time in years as I was watching ‘Oceans 8’ (opens June 8).
It was in the summer of 1995-Sandy had really broken out big time exactly one year earlier in ‘Speed,’ but for a poorly reviewed and little seen film called ‘The Net’, she was the above the line star. I don’t think I ever saw it myself, but I had sent my intern to LA to interview her for the movie (I didn’t like to fly during those years), and he came back with a “press junket package” that aired on my weekly show.
Keep in mind, things were more innocent then-this is before everyone had email and home internet and station websites. Someone saw the piece on air and let Sandy’s mom know about it–since the Bullocks had long lived in Arlington, VA (Sandy went to Washington-Lee High school) we were their local news station.
When I say innocent–you really could just call up a TV station and get put through to someone, and when I answered the phone, Mrs. Bullock got to the point: she had missed my show (I’m sure she’d never, ever watched it) and was calling to ask if I would send a VHS copy of her daughter’s interview to her.
Well, hell yes I would! Mrs. Bullock had a noticeable German accent and said her name was Helga. Even though she had been an Opera singer in Germany, I don’t think anything about her was widely known in the US at that time.
In the gentlest way, she asked me to be discrete with the address she was about to give me–which was the house where they (and Sandy before) lived. To this day, I never told a soul what the address was, and every year when I’d buy a new date book, I’d re-write that down, just as I did all the other addresses, not that I’d ever have occasion to use it.
Less than 5 years later, Helga Bullock died of cancer-I believe she was only about 58 years old–far too young. I didn’t get to do my first interview with Helga’s daughter until 1996, I think-and I made sure to tell her about her Mom calling me for the tape. She kind of did one of those “Oh, Moommm” chuckles.
Oceans 8 is just a popcorn summer flick, but Sandy speaks German a few times briefly in the movie–and in the final scene (don’t worry, not a spoiler) she is facing many headstones (or whatever you call the stones that are stacked in rows inside a mausoleum) and I couldn’t help but notice that one of the stones says Helga M Meyer. The dates aren’t accurate, but when I got home just now, I looked up info on Helga Bullock…whose maiden name was…Meyer. Helga Mathilde Meyer. Classy tribute.
Kyle Osborne
I’ve always been curious. Just saw oceans 8 and loved it. But name on tombstone made me ask..who is that? Great tribute to Ms. Bullocks mom. She would have loved it too.
I just watched Oceans 8 and noticed Helga Meyer’s name on the tombstone next to Danny Ocean’s. Got home and have been searching information on this since I am a big Bullocks fan and knew that was her mother’s name until I saw your post. I thought for a moment I had misread. I can sleep now.