Hilary Duff plays a shy wallflower with a crush on the Most Popular Boy In School™ (Chad Michael Murray, as interchangeable as any of 'em), who goes to the school masquerade ball as Cinderella, causing said Boy to fall in love with her, except she is still reluctant to reveal her actual identity (which should be obvious enough to anyone, especially the supposedly Princeton-bound Boy). Perhaps Hilary is insecure because of her home life, where she is constantly put down and/or enslaved by her wicked stepmother (Jennifer Coolidge, doing her pretty-much-always-funny trademark schtick) and her two ugly stepsisters (a couple of no-names). Complications arise, things go haywire, everything works out for Hilary in the end, and everyone who deserves it gets their proper comeuppance. Paul Rodriguez and James Eckhouse have brief, refreshing cameos. And while it may well be creepy of me to say so, Hilary Duff's a real sweetie-pie with by far the cutest upper-arms in the business. 🤷
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