diff --git a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
@@ -1297,16 +1297,23 @@ class RequestTests(unittest.TestCase):
         self.post = urllib2.Request("http://www.python.org/~jeremy/",
                                     "data",
                                     headers={"X-Test": "test"})
 
     def test_method(self):
         self.assertEqual("POST", self.post.get_method())
         self.assertEqual("GET", self.get.get_method())
 
+    def test___getattr__(self):
+        self.assertEqual("GET", self.get._Request__r_method)
+        self.assertEqual("http://www.python.org/~jeremy/",
+                         self.get._Request__r_full_url)
+        with self.assertRaises(AttributeError):
+            self.get._Request__r_invalid_attr
+
     def test_add_data(self):
         self.assertTrue(not self.get.has_data())
         self.assertEqual("GET", self.get.get_method())
         self.get.add_data("spam")
         self.assertTrue(self.get.has_data())
         self.assertEqual("POST", self.get.get_method())
 
     def test_get_full_url(self):
diff --git a/Lib/urllib2.py b/Lib/urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/urllib2.py
+++ b/Lib/urllib2.py
@@ -246,18 +246,17 @@ class Request:
     def __getattr__(self, attr):
         # XXX this is a fallback mechanism to guard against these
         # methods getting called in a non-standard order.  this may be
         # too complicated and/or unnecessary.
         # XXX should the __r_XXX attributes be public?
         if attr[:12] == '_Request__r_':
             name = attr[12:]
             if hasattr(Request, 'get_' + name):
-                getattr(self, 'get_' + name)()
-                return getattr(self, attr)
+                return getattr(self, 'get_' + name)()
         raise AttributeError, attr
 
     def get_method(self):
         if self.has_data():
             return "POST"
         else:
             return "GET"