Backstage at Fox's recent Teen Choice Awards, the actress who goes by the name of Love was the object of so much affection it should have been Valentine's Day.

Blink-182 angled for a spot in her field of vision. LFO congratulated themselves on their good fortune: They were to copresent an award with her. And another admirer was so desperate to make her acquaintance that he followed her around backstage, tugging on her skirt. Spinning around, Jennifer Love Hewitt came waist-to-face with actor Verne J. Troyer, aka Mini-Me from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Excited, she promptly plopped down on the floor for a chat. That's all it took to hook Verne. Later, while presenting an award, he gave her the "I love you" sign from the podium. "She's a hottie," he observed.

No one was surprised when the 20-year-old nabbed "Female Hottie of the Year" honors that night -- well, except the star herself. "I consider myself such a dork, so it was totally undeserved," she says humbly. "I've gotten lots of calls from my friends, saying 'Hey, Hottie of the Year, how ya doin'?' And I'm like, 'Shut up!'"

For all her humility, Love can't deny that she's on a serious roll. Her new series, Time of Your Life -- she's a producer as well as the star -- premieres on Fox at the end of October. The Party of Five spin-off finds Sarah in New York City, searching for her biological father. The actress also has a feature film, The Suburbans, out in theaters, and a television movie, The Audrey Hepburn Story, scheduled to air next year on ABC. While playing Hepburn, her own personal fashion icon, Love added to her wardrobe copies of a few of the classic pieces the late movie star made famous. "I've got the Capri pants, the black dress and the ballet slippers," she says.

Another recent acquisition is her own production company, Love Spell Entertainment, housed on the Sony Pictures lot, just minutes from the Time of Your Life set. "On my lunch break, I go over and work for an hour," says the budding exec. The first project she'll produce, star and surf in is the drama Girl in the Curl. (It's not housed anymore there.)

On a late-summer afternoon, Love's lounging in a camouflage T-shirt and jeans, while enjoying some rare downtime by the pool in the backyard of the San Fernando Valley house she shares with her mom, Pat. Yesterday's Time of Your Life shoot lasted until 3:30 a.m., so she doesn't have to be back on the set until early evening. It's the last day of the show's first week of filming, which is why Love is sporting a temporary green shamrock tattoo on the small of her back. "I thought this would be a good way to wish us luck," she explains. "I've always wanted a real one, but I just know I wouldn't want to be the 80-year-old grandma with the tattoo."

Another big thing Love's grappling with these days, like her TV alter ego, is self-discovery. "Twenty is that big time where you go, 'Ahh! Who am I? What am I doing?'" she says. "Sarah makes this big speech in Time of Your Life. She says she kind of feels like the Marcia Brady of the millennium; maybe she wants to do something daring. I'm kind of like that in my life right now. That doesn't mean I'm going to go out and do anything crazy, but I'm just trying to figure out who I am as a person."

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