Sandra Bullock may be the front-runner for the best-actress Oscar, but for her, awards season is more about camaraderie than competition with her fellow nominees. Except Meryl Streep.

"With Meryl, when this whole thing started, I left her a voice mail going, 'You've got to watch your back. I'm gonna cut you. I'm gonna take you down,'" Bullock said with a laugh Tuesday after learning she and Streep were both nominated for Academy Awards. "And then she sent me dead orchids and told me to die, so I sent her a case of liquor and told her to toast to white trash."

Bullock _ who kissed Streep on the lips when the two friends tied for best actress at the Critics' Choice Awards _ said the best thing about collecting repeated accolades for her role in "The Blind Side" has been getting to know the other actresses she has been nominated with for the past month or more.

"You have to enjoy being with these women that you admire or love or like or have had friendships with or are just getting to know because you've got to take care of each other," Bullock said.

"No one, at least the people that I've met, no one cares about the end result or the statue," she said. "It's being able to sit in close proximity with these ladies ... and we have to go through this whole rigamarole and we just all look at each other and we get to know each other and you laugh at the absurdity of it all and how they pit women up against each other."

Despite becoming an Oscar nominee, the 45-year-old actress remains grounded. While speaking with a reporter about the Oscar nod, Bullock could be overheard telling her young stepdaughter, "I'll do your hair when I finish this."

"On one hand, it's a huge moment," Bullock said. "And on the other hand, you have to put your feet on the ground and get out of bed and do the things you always do."

The Academy Awards will be presented at the Kodak Theatre on March 7 and broadcast live on ABC.