A Cinderella Story

ITV Press Centre

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A Cinderella Story, 2004, USA

Director: Mark Rosman

Actors: Hilary Duff, Jennifer Coolidge, Chad Michael Murray, Dan Byrd, Regina King, Julie Gonzalo, Lin Shaye, Madeline Zima, Andrea Avery, Mary Pat Gleason, Paul Rodriguez, Whip Hubley, Kevin Kilner, Erica Hubbard, Kady Cole

Hillary Duff stars in this charming modern-day update of the famous fairy tale. She plays downtrodden high-school student Sam Montgomery, who’s forced by her conniving stepmother and two selfish step-sisters to slave away at the family-owned diner.

Sam finds some escape in her pokey attic bedroom hideaway, where she morphs into her feisty alter ego Diner Girl and chats on her computer about her dreams of going to Princeton University with Nomad, a boy who also attends North Valley High School. When he asks to meet her at the school’s Halloween dance at 11pm, Sam reluctantly agrees. She arranges with her colleagues to slip out of work for a couple of hours – but she must be back by midnight before her step-mum Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge) discovers she’s missing.

When Sam realises that her ‘Princeton Charming’ is none other than school hunk Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray), she’s dismayed. After all, his snotty girlfriend and their friends make her life hell, both at the diner and at school. But, after a masked Sam rushes back to work, Austin makes it his mission to find out the identity of his gorgeous mystery date.

A Cinderella Story is written by Leigh Dunlap and directed by Mark Rosman.