Meg's back! You know America, your sweetheart, Meg. No bells yet? When Harry Met Sally? Yeah, that sweetheart.

Well, she's back. According to the October issue of InStyle. Back, apparently because of her recent film The Women. But I'm not tapping you on your proverbial shoulder to talk about that. What I am pondering, is all this "America's Sweetheart" stuff. Can the 46-year-old Ryan, along with Roberts, Bullock and others of America's past sweetheart flames, rekindle the romance? Is it once a sweetheart always a sweetheart? Or, unlike the sugary Valentine confection, do America's sweethearts expire?

Which begs the ultimate question, what makes an "America's Sweetheart"?

Some say Nora Ephron penned the phrase in the era of When Harry Met Sally, which Ephron wrote. James Robert Parish, a Hollywood historian says the title is bestowed upon actresses that "project not only sweetness but vulnerability. Then people can relate and don’t feel threatened." He also adds that she needs to be a "beautiful wholesome American" and rom-com regular. Someone that's appealing, but not so appealing that your "husband or boyfriend is going to want to run off with her." Yes, you definitely wouldn't want your boyfriend ringing up say Cameron Diaz after watching There's Something About Mary. He wouldn't though, because she's a sweetheart.

Still it seems that past media and box-office crowned sweethearts, from Doris Day and Shirley Temple to Sally Fields and Julia Roberts, have embodied (at least on screen) a certain same sense of girl-next-door wholesomeness and girlfriend likeability (as in, "Hey girlfriend! No you didin!") mixed with quirky comic charm.

So who is America's current sweetheart love? There are plenty of contenders. After Legally Blonde, some said Witherspoon had the crown. Diane Lane's received a nod (what's older than a kitten, but cuddlier than a cougar...), suggesting that perhaps age doesn't matter. Most recent nominees include kooky cutie Drew Barrymore, Michelle Monaghan, Amanda Bynes, and if we bend the rules a bit, Canadian favorite, Rachel McAdams. Oh, and Sarah Palin. You don't need to be an on-screen actress to be a national sweetie, apparently. (Her face is on "America's Sweetheart" tees. Available on the internets. Order fast before the tubes get clogged.) And the list goes on...

Considering McAdams' diverse taste in films, it's questionable she'd covet such a feathery accolade. Then again, what actress would want the title? It does have some perks, though -- a bigger box-office salary, more movie deals, a chance to be poorly animated and mocked in South Park and Family Guy.

Or is the doomed and undesirable fate of most America's Sweethearts, as prophesied in the words of Julia Roberts in Notting Hill, "One day, not long from now, my looks will go. They will discover I can't act, and I will become some a sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while."

Naw, that can't be true.

If America's just dating you for your outer wholesomeness instead of your inner acting beauty, you should kick America to the curb. America doesn't respect you. America will never take you to the Oscars (at least not for simply being a sweetheart). And if America pretends like it's dating you, say if you're Rachel McAdams, just ignore it, eventually it will take the hint.

(Personally, I'm cutting back on sweethearts. They give me a movie toothache.)

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