Sandra Bullock is on a career high. America’s Sweetheart and “Miss Congeniality” was repeatedly anointed as Hollywood royalty this year, sweeping awards season and capping it off with an Oscar for her role as a devoted mom in “The Blind Side.”

But as this Tinseltown fairy-tale played out on camera, real-life drama may have been brewing behind the scenes.

With worldwide attention on the brand-new Oscar winner – who first captured hearts as a brave bus passenger in 1994’s “Speed” and went on to amass more than two dozen movie credits – Bullock is being dogged by tabloid reports of problems with her husband of nearly five years.

Internet rumors surfaced Wednesday that the 45-year-old actress’ husband, celebrity motorcycle builder and reality-TV star Jesse James, had been unfaithful while she was making her Oscar-winning film. Bullock subsequently canceled a planned appearance next week at the London premiere of “The Blind Side,” citing “unforeseen personal reasons.”

On Thursday, James apologized to his wife and three children from previous relationships through a statement issued to People magazine and later obtained by The Associated Press.

“It’s because of my poor judgment that I deserve everything bad that is coming my way,” he said. “This has caused my wife and kids pain and embarrassment beyond comprehension and I am extremely saddened to have brought this on them.”

He added that “the vast majority of the allegations reported are untrue and unfounded,” but offered no other details, saying, “Beyond that, I will not dignify these private matters with any further public comment.”

Representatives for Bullock did not respond to calls and e-mails seeking comment Thursday.

Publicly, there was no indication of strife as the couple appeared happily arm-in-arm throughout Hollywood’s awards season while Bullock racked up the accolades.

She called her husband “sexy” as she accepted her Screen Actor’s Guild award. Backstage, he held her purse as she spoke to reporters.

At the Golden Globes, Bullock told James from the stage, her voice cracking with emotion: “There’s no surprise that my work got better when I met you. Because I never knew what it felt like for someone to have my back.”

Things were different at the Academy Awards.

Bullock did not thank her husband, who appeared teary-eyed on camera as she accepted her award. Instead she thanked mothers and parents everywhere – including a poignant tribute to her own mother – along with her fellow nominees and “everyone who’s shown me kindness when it wasn’t fashionable.”

Still, Bullock and James, 40, walked hand-in-hand down Oscar’s red carpet, celebrated together at the parties afterward and were photographed outside a Long Beach burger joint the next day.

The actress and the “Monster Garage” star met in 2003 and married in 2005. Initially deemed an odd match by some – she’s the girl next door, he’s a tattooed bad-boy – the couple stayed blissfully out of the public eye while continuing their individual successes.

Bullock had dated actors, including Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Gosling, and was engaged to Tate Donovan, but her marriage to James is her first. James had been married twice before and is in an ongoing dispute with his most recent ex-wife over custody of their 5-year-old daughter, Sunny.

Bullock has said she loves James’ children as though they were her own and that the eldest, Chandler, selected her regal Oscar gown.

While winning an Academy Award can be a boon to actors’ careers, it’s not always great for their personal lives. Sean Penn won the best-actor Oscar last year for “Milk” and split with his wife, Robin Wright Penn, a few months later. (He didn’t thank her in his speech, either.) Last year’s best-actress winner, Kate Winslet, separated from her husband, director Sam Mendes, earlier this week.

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Sandra Bullock paid her dues in Hollywood for more than 20 years, beloved by the moviegoing public if not always the critics. She was rewarded Sunday, winning the best-actress Oscar for playing a tough white Southern woman who adopted a black child in “The Blind Side.”

Bullock had repeatedly said she didn’t think she was going to win for the part she initially turned down, although the 45-year-old actress was a heavy favorite.

“Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?” she said after accepting the golden statue from Sean Penn.

“I have so many people to thank for my good fortune in this lifetime and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I know.”

In the closest race of the acting categories, Bullock was up against Meryl Steep in “Julie & Julia,” former winner Helen Mirren in “The Last Station,” and breakout stars Gabourey Sidibe of “Precious” and Carey Mulligan of “An Education” for their first-time leading roles.

In “The Blind Side,” Bullock donned a frosted blond wig and a Tennessee twang to play Leigh Anne Tuohy, the real-life adoptive mother of Baltimore Ravens football player Michael Oher.

Bullock had already won the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards, and tied Streep at the Broadcast Film Critics awards. Streep also won at the Globes.

At 60, Streep is the most nominated actor, male or female, of all time with 16 nods, but she’s gone home empty-handed since her last best-actress win for “Sophie’s Choice” in 1983. Her other victory was as supporting actress for “Kramer vs. Kramer” in 1980.

“I look at the company I keep in this category and you can’t pick,” Bullock said backstage. “There’s not one that rises above the others. I feel like I share it equally in five parts because we ladies need to stick together.”

Bullock’s Oscar triumph came a night after she won worst actress at the Razzies on Saturday for “All About Steve,” a romantic comedy flop that quickly vanished at theaters in between her 2009 hits, “The Proposal” and “The Blind Side.”

Bullock became the first person to win an Oscar and a Razzie on the same weekend. She was the rare A-list star who attended the show that pokes fun at the Oscars by giving out prizes for Hollywood clunkers.

“I had the best time at the Razzie,” she said backstage. “It’s the great equalizer. No one lets me get too full of myself.”

Asked where she would put the Oscar and the Razzie, Bullock replied, “They’ll sit side-by-side on a shelf somewhere, the Razzie maybe on a different shelf, lower.”

Bullock’s breakout role came in the 1994 film “Speed.” She went on to score box office successes in “While You Were Sleeping” and “Miss Congeniality.” But she also appeared in a string of duds before a supporting role in the 2004 movie “Crash” earned Bullock some of the best reviews of her career.

She attributed her victory to hanging in through good roles and bad.

“I didn’t aspire to this,” she said backstage, cradling her Oscar. “I was in awe of it, I admired it and I got to watch it like everyone else did. I didn’t think the opportunity would ever present itself for me to rise to that occasion. This came out of left field, every pun intended.”

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Even if Golden Globes double-nominee favorite Sandra Bullock doesn’t take home the coveted statue on Sunday for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Comedy for “The Proposal” or for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama for her work in the inspirational true story “The Blind Side,” the filming experience has at least helped the Hollywood starlet broaden her friendship circle.

“I met this extraordinary family the Touhys (who the film was based on), who I wish I would have remembered to thank since they already did the extraordinary deed and Michael Oher did the most extraordinary thing in opening his heart and allowing himself to be enveloped by this family,” Bullock excitedly told us backstage at the Critics Choice Awards on Friday after co-winning with (and mouth kissing) Meryl Streep. “They changed my life and I am so happy to call them friends.

And they’re Republicans, and I’m okay with that and they’re okay with me being a Democrat!”

And while most celebrities would like to think their best days are still ahead of them, the 45-year-old had no shame in confessing that her professional life has hit its peak.

“I’m just so happy to be here and I got to share the stage with Meryl Streep,” Bullock gushed. “I just adore her, so that for me was the height of my career and it just happened. I’m so thankful and it’s unexpected, as most good things are.”

But back to “The Blind Side,” the film also taught Bullock what it takes to kick some balls. Sort of.

“My husband was a big football player. I knew nothing of the sport even though I was a cheerleader, which is very sad. But I have such tremendous respect and understanding now of what it takes to be a professional athlete that I didn’t have before — mentally, physically and emotionally,” Bullock recently told us while promoting “The Blind Side,” which was inspired by a true story. “I really had no idea. And the coaches really become the parents to so many, and basically save lives.”

On that note, Bullock has some words of wisdom.

“You’re not allowed to sit as a coach, all fat with your beer and complain that your player isn’t doing what you want them to do,” she said. “Unless you can do that yourself, I think you should just be quiet.”

And although Bullock has managed to win over audiences (and Golden Globe deciders the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) with her role as Leigh Anne Tuohy in the emotionally-charged, all-American film, she insisted she isn’t as a patch on the real life Tuohy when it comes to guts.

“I have no moxy compared to Leigh Anne Tuohy. I am a slug compared to Leigh Anne Tuohy and I will admit I bow down to Leigh Anne Tuohy,” Bullock said. “She scares me and she inspires me and she had such an interesting upbringing. She is so unafraid to barrel through and she doesn’t care who she insults along the way. She doesn’t care what bridges she burns, she has an objective and she is going to get it done and she can get it done. You do not want to cross Leigh Anne.”

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