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''I will look anyone straight in the face and say, 'Get off my cloud nine. You don't belong here. If I fall off, I fall off on my own. But you're not going to push me.''' — Jennifer Love Hewitt, 19

Some executives rely on market research to conjure up an idea. Others hire armies of script doctors. For Jennifer Love Hewitt, the call to power came while she was sleeping. ''I woke up one morning with the warm and fuzzies from this dream I had,'' she says, recalling her nocturnal vision of a wedding planner who falls for one of her betrothed clients. ''So I wrote a 10-page treatment and sent it to the Writers Guild with my check for $20.''

Soon thereafter she was producing Marry Me Jane, a romantic comedy on the fast track at New Line. Surprised? You're not alone. ''I was convinced they were going to laugh in my face,'' she admits of her pitch meeting with New Line execs Donna Langley and Claire Rudnick Polstein. ''I thought it would be like, 'You're a 19-year-old who wants to come in here and have us give you millions of dollars to make a movie? Come back when you're 40.' But I wasn't about to not try. I never want to be one of those people who complains about there not being any roles.''

Of course, signing on to Hewitt's dream was pretty much a ''no duh'' for New Line, given the dreamer's young-skewing mass appeal. She's equal parts wholesome girl next door (she hawks anti-acne cleanser) and sex symbol (oh, those tank tops! That strategically placed lariat necklace!). As such, Hewitt now commands $2 million per picture. Booked up until the millennium, she'll follow up Summer (for which she recorded the soundtrack's single, ''How Do I Deal?'') with a more grown-up turn as a sexpot music suit in the Ben Stiller comedy The Suburbans. And after this season of PO5, during which time she'll tape the pilot for her character's spin-off series, Hewitt will devote her hiatus to taping and executive-producing an Audrey Hepburn biopic for ABC, followed by Marry Me Jane. With Columbia close to nailing down a production company deal with Hewitt (''I don't know whether to name it Little Diva Productions or Angel Productions,'' says Hewitt. ''I just love the idea of this fat cherub being my logo''), this town is experiencing a veritable Love-in.

''She's an absolute powerhouse,'' says Columbia Pictures president Amy Pascal. ''She's always so together, so organized.'' She'd better be. Hewitt has a variety of ideas for films in her head, including a Mafia thriller. ''It's not easy being a young girl trying to navigate through the tricky waters of this business,'' says New Line's Langley. ''But Love gains a lot of respect for being very self-effacing, knowing she has a lot to prove, and taking the time to listen and learn from everyone around her.''

On her own time, Hewitt makes a pretty convincing teenager. She's so all about McDonald's french fries and roller-skating around her San Fernando Valley neighborhood. She's known to break down in tears when she receives any sort of compliment; when this reporter tells her that several sources have described her as ''very professional,'' Hewitt's eyes well up. ''Really?'' she says, her voice weakening. But like any person who spent her formative years on soundstages and magazine covers, she'd probably have a breakdown if faced with a freshman orientation cruise. She relies heavily on her mother, Pat Hewitt, to play the role of best friend. Solitude also helps. ''I don't know me very well,'' she says. ''I play someone else for 19 hours a day, so when I'm not working, I just like having time to myself.''


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