The King’s daughter was balancing in her...

The King’s daughter was balancing in her spiky, sparkly Jimmy Choo shoes. Outside, her prince Nicolas Cage waved to an adoring crowd, while Cruise and Cruz--that’s Tom and Penelope--made their way down the red carpet.

A Hollywood fairy tale ... and the movie hadn’t even begun.

When it finally did, Lisa Marie Presley could rest her weary feet, and Cruise could wonder if the character played by Cruz in “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” would survive.

“I made her promise me not to tell,” Cruise told us, as he held hands with Cruz during the Italian-Greek themed after-party at the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills.

Cruz--wearing a white rose in her hair and a white dress by Ralph Lauren (for whom she sells perfume)--beamed, saying she was very proud of the movie. Earlier, when she was asked whom she’d name the sexiest man in Hollywood, she demurred with a shy smile: “Aw, you know. ... “

Well, we have a pretty good idea, especially after her appearance this week on Jay Leno’s “The Tonight Show,” where she seemed to confirm (with a nod) a romance with her “Vanilla Sky” co-star.

Cage held hands with Presley as he took questions from reporters. He told us he enjoys movies about romance but that shooting this particular love story posed a challenge. “It was like going to Camp Corelli,” he said. “I had two hours of dialect coaching in the morning, then two hours of mandolin and two hours of opera singing, and marching like an Italian soldier.”

And how much of a mandolin man is he really? “If you asked me to play anything right now,” he said, “I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

But then, Cage doesn’t need to. He already got a princess, and on Tuesday he was immortalized with an imprint of his hands and feet in the forecourt of Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. How’s that for a fairy-tale ending?

When Peace Backfires

Ober-architect Frank O. Gehry’s peace offering to a band of testy environmentalists inadvertently led them to his Santa Monica home last week.

Gehry has riled activists with his work on the Playa Vista development and his plans to locate offices there. But he has held fast, despite demands from environmental groups that he withdraw from the controversial commercial and housing development near Marina del Rey. Activists say the project encroaches on the Ballona Wetlands, one of the last remaining in California.

During one impromptu meeting with peace activist Jerry Rubin, Gehry gave Rubin an autographed copy of a coffee table book, “Frank Gehry, Architect.”

When Gehry continued to ignore environmentalists’ demands, however, Rubin remembered the book.

“In that book,” said Rubin, “is a picture of his house.”

That’s where he led his slogan-chanting crew last Wednesday to deliver an 8-foot-high “Earth memo” opposing Gehry’s involvement in the project, signed by about 1,000 people, including Santa Monica Mayor pro-tem Richard Bloom and “a few of Gehry’s neighbors.”

Gehry wasn’t home. Folks at his office say he’s out of town. But Rubin and his crew aren’t giving up so soon. These are the same folks who harangued Steven Spielberg until he and his DreamWorks partners abandoned plans to locate a studio there. A swift end to their protests is unlikely.

Forever Young

“Detta r jtte rolig,” Ann-Margret said recently, as we chatted by phone. The Swedish-born actress was referring to the chance to speak her mother tongue. (Translation: “This is great fun.”)

In the background, Missy, her Maltese puppy was yapping away. “She’s learning Swedish too,” said the 60-year-old sex kitten, who has just launched a public-service campaign, “What 60 Looks Like Now.” The effort is designed to raise awareness about women’s health issues and encourages women to undergo bone density tests.

The actress said she works out three times a week in what she calls “the torture chamber.” Her trainer, though, “doesn’t have a whip.” That will come as good news to the National Council on Aging, which is sponsoring the campaign.

Sightings

Suge Knight, just freed from prison, milling about at the 10th-anniversary party of Wolfgang Puck and Barbara Lazaroff’s Granita restaurant in Malibu. ... Other party-goers included Fred Segal. ... Celebrity photographer Herb Ritts threw his birthday party at Kane’s in Hollywood recently. His guests included Jennifer Lopez and fellow recording artists k.d. lang, Tracy Chapman and members of No Doubt. Also feting Ritts: Arnold Schwarzenegger with Maria Shriver, and Rande Gerber with his very pregnant wife, Cindy Crawford. ... Also about town these days: Benjamin Bratt, dining at Ago in West Hollywood. Julia Roberts’ ex was also seen at Moomba in West Hollywood with another man, while every woman in the restaurant craned to catch a glimpse of him. Same restaurant, different night: Forest Whitaker held court with a large group of friends. Billionaire space cadet Dennis Tito with a couple at Dan Tana’s in West Hollywood, munching on birthday cheesecake. ... Red Hot Chili Pepper Anthony Kiedis, Christina Applegate, and Cameron Diaz taking in the Peaches show at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.

Quotable

“We’re often being told that our stories are ‘being noted in the building.’ We don’t know what the noting means. But I guess if you get noted enough, you get--maybe you get the Talk magazine treatment.” --Washington Post’s Dana Milbank to CNN when asked about encounters with the Bush administration’s bad side.

Ann O’Neill is on vacation. Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug wrote this column. City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. Email: angles@latimes.com.