Michael Fallow discovers how Invercargill-raised singer-songwriter Helen Henderson found herself in a Hollywood fairytale.
The celebrity photographers weren't sure what to make of this one.
Amid the Lord of the Rings and Whale Rider cast members, New Zealand cinema notables, United States movie industry insiders and assorted diplomats swanning into the Beverly Hills Hotel for a pre-Oscar bash, came a face they couldn't put a name to.
Better safe than sorry, so flash-flash-flash-flash-flash went the cameras. And you are?
"Cinderella," Helen Henderson told them.
It certainly felt that way. In some ways she was more of a real Hollywood local than many on the carpet that night, years of performing in the area's small-but-vibrant local clubs had seen to that.
Her lifestyle is hardly that of the glitterati, but she takes her place in the tight and supportive ex-pat community over there, and has from time to time been called in by New Zealand ambassador Daryl Dunn, who is no stranger to her work, to sing for her supper.
This time she was not to perform, but was nevertheless on the guest list.
So there she was in a spectacular Richard Tyler dress, (thanks, once again, to friendship, not fortune), facing the rather daunting prospect of the red carpet ahead of her.
As if on cue, came director Roger Donaldson - a pal! - happy to squire her at least part-way past the photographers until he was pulled up by quote-seeking reporters.
She wafted down the big velvet stairs to the crystal ballroom.
The Cinderella parallel proved prophetic.
Before long she found herself chatting to Billy Boyd, the wee Scottish charmer who plays Pippin in the Rings films, and who, as befits a hobbit, is not exactly tall.
"I was leaning over ... and the next minute, pop! One of the heels came off my shoe."
Boyd was quick to ease her mortification as they surveyed the broken heel. "Why don't you just go barefoot?" he suggested. "It's very South Pacific."
So she did.
Meanwhile, the staff of the Beverly Hills Hotel set about their discreet ministrations like Cinderella's mice.
One staffer took her shoe to the concierge, who found a hotel engineer, and before long she was returned to her former stature on superglued footware.
Not a prince in sight, so she had to settle for a king, enjoying fully 20 minutes with Viggo Mortensen, who plays Aragorn in the Rings movies, and was himself a Hollywood neighbourhood regular during his struggling actor-poet days.
They had common friends.
Hug, kisses and even a hongi with Peter Jackson.
"I just had to. I couldn't help it. He was so sweet."
She thanked him not just for what he had done for New Zealand and its film industry, but also for New Zealanders, like her, who had lived on the US West Coast for so long.
"You've helped bridge the gap and brought it home for us," she said.
There was Keisha Castle-Hughes, Cliff Curtis and director Niki Caro, Rena Owen and director Lee Tamahori from Once Were Warriors, director Sam Pilsbury, familiar faces from throughout the entertainment industry and - perhaps inevitably - a distant cousin from Invercargill.
This was Simon Millar, an agent based in Beverly Hills at The Firm, an entertainment brand-management company representing the careers of high-profile actors, directors, writers, musical artists and bands. His family is best-known in Invercargill as bakers (Millars and later Millar-Lang).
Mind you, Henderson's side of the family also held a place in this city's culinary firmament.
Her granddad on her mum's side, Syd Lindsay, had the Invercargill pie cart. So while Beverly Hills hotel staff fussed over the finest specially imported New Zealand delicacies, it did not pass unnoticed between Millar and Henderson that between them they had the bread and meat covered.
She returned home with a stack of stellar autographs for her 8-year-old daughter Lily, who simply couldn't wait for school the next Monday.
The pre-Oscar excitement at that party was intense, not just for the sense of achievement about the two films, but also of potential.
"It was moving because of the way New Zealand film has exploded with a huge megafilm like Lord of the Rings and a beautiful, spiritual offering of Whale Rider."
And then, for the Oscar ceremony itself, Henderson found herself at the New Line party at the Pacific Design Centre on San Vicente Boulevard.
"You should have heard the roar that went up in the building when we cleaned up all the categories."
It was New Line's support that enabled Jackson to make his films.
"A true collaboration between New Zealand and America ... and a miracle occurred."