Fairy Tales Do Come True....

From the hair to the shoes, the run-up to the Oscars is all about the details. Up-and-coming actress Zooey Deschanel and the Jimmy Choo team take us behind the scenes.

"Are you part of this madness?", laughs the handsome, grey-haired man, buzzing open the gate of his Spanish-style L.A. home. He introduces himself: Caleb Deschanel, legendary cinematographer and Oscar nominee for The Patriot. It's about lunchtime, the sky is blue, and it's a perfect California day. Moments away, on Sunset Boulevard, limos are swishing by. But the master of the house is remarkably calm and serene (he's been through this three times before). He's not even in his tux yet, but it's only 1:00pm and the limo that will whisk the Deschanels to the Shrine Auditorium downtown isn't arriving until 3:00pm.

Inside a conservatory at the back of the house, however, things are not so calm. There, her face bathed in sunlight, 21 year-old Zooey Deschanel is having her make-up done. She's nervous, even though this is her second trip to the Oscars; the first was two years ago, but "I was still in high school, so I just wore a Fifties prom dress I bought for $14. It wasn't the big deal it is this year. I had none of this," she says, pointing at the hair and the make-up team.

Things are different now. Now, Deschanel the younger is an actress. She was one of the stars of last year's Almost Famous and, since then, has been working non-stop. Recently, she has completed Manic, featuring a superlative cast, including Traffic's Don Cheadle, and next up is The Good Girl, starring Jennifer Aniston. All of which means that, though Zooey still lives at home, she has already, metaphorically, if not literally, arrived.

If there's any doubt, her outfit tells the story. There's the dress: a diamond-bedecked net Marc Jacobs creation, one of two gowns she had to choose between. "I loved this one," she says, though truth be told, she's having a hard time keeping the full skirt under control. "It keeps getting caught on things. I have to be really careful." Then there are the jewels: a $35,000 Dior diamond necklace with bodyguard to match (aside from her father, the bodyguard will be Deschanel's constant companion all night, tailing her from show to party to party). There's the theme: "Bows. There's a bow on my Judith Lieber handbag, my earrings and necklace are bows and there's a bow on my dress. I have a Swarovski crystal tattoo on my ankle that was going to be a bow. It didn't quite turn out right, but still looks pretty." There's also the stylist: Billi Currie, editorial director of Vidal Sassoon, who has flown in from London and has put Zooey's hair up in a fabulous bun, as per their joint decision. And, finally, there are the shoes: customised Jimmy Choos.

Of the entire outfit, it's the shoes that shout "starlet" above all. After all, as far as dresses go, a wide swathe of designers will be represented at the Academy Awards, but when you're talking shoes, well, consider this: last year, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Hilary Swank, Kate Hudson, Salma Hayek and Ashley Judd (among others) all sported Jimmy Choos at the ceremony. This is the kind of client list any label would kill for, but to a girl who dreams of walking in such celebrated footsteps, there's simply no other cobbler worth wearing. Thus it was three days ago that Zooey made the pilgrimage to the Jimmy Choo suite at the L'Hermitage, the five-star Los Angeles hotel which has become their headquarters for various designers. There, holed up with managing director, Tamara Mellon and designer Sandra Choi, who had jetted over from England the week before, she went over styles and colours, and yesterday, the magic slippers appeared. "These shoes are so beautiful and look how perfectly they match my dress!", says Zooey, perched on a stool in front of the vanity table in her bedroom.

The shoes, high strappy sandals, have been dyed the same colour as her dress and hand-painted (by Rosie Mennem, an interiors artist) with tiny silver squares to complement the dress's silver net overlay. They are the icing on Zooey's satorial cake. "I think I have a pretty cute ensemble," she says, plopping down on her four-poster to slip the shoes on. On a nearby desk, there's a script upon which Zooey has scrawled, "this is trash".

While she may be at ease passing judgements on movie projects, she's not entirely comfortable being primped and preened. "I'm feeling good today, but I don't really like to be the focus of attention," she says. "I normally do my own hair and make-up, for example." Then she careens down a corridor lined with family photos, predominately of Zooey and her older sister, Emily (also an actress, currently shooting a TV pilot), to her bathroom. "I love it, it's so girlie," she says, checking herself out in the mirror. She's concerned about being "too done-up", and can't decide about the tiara she has in her hair. "I think I wore it once to one of my proms," she says. Everyone assures her it looks great, and she stops worrying and starts checking her handbag contents. "Thank God I can fit my cellphone in here," she says, and laughs. Then the chariot arrives, ready to whisk this particular Cinderella to the (Governor's) Ball.