By Elina Fuhrman, Photographs: Giuliano Bekor

n the Los Angeles studio of Hollywood photographer Giuliano Bekor, Katharine McPhee deliberates wardrobe options for her photo shoot while a hairstylist wraps the singer's long brown strands around rollers. "I only want couture," stresses Bekor, showing McPhee his picks. "Oh, I just hope I fit into all these dresses," she says, examining the collection of tiny Dolce & Gabbana, Tadashi and Nicole Miller. "Oh, that's cute—I like this dress!" Last season's almost Idol is exuberant, audacious and gorgeous. She has just returned from a week-and-ahalf- long tour of Italy for Sexy Hair, for whose products she is the spokesmodel, and she can't stop talking about it.

It has been a year since the leggy Valley girl with a powerful voice and good looks stirred up "McPheever" by auditioning for television's most popular national talent show, American Idol. Although she came up second in Idol's fifth season, she has enjoyed more fame and fortune than the show's winner, Taylor Hicks. At 23, McPhee is now a recording artist, a dream she practically gave up when she dropped out of college to pursue acting.

"How do you explain it? It's a different life, you know?" she muses, looking radiant with her perfect complexion and freshly curled, sexy mane. She's dressed in dark Earnest Sewn skinny jeans and a vest that exposes her considerable cleavage, teetering on a pair of leather turquoise pumps she just picked up in Italy. "I bought so many shoes there. They have all kinds of designers— I couldn't resist."

McPhee's schedule is now one of perpetual motion: She barely had 24 hours between returning from Italy and her Vegas shoot, and she will leave for Canada in three days. And then there are appearances, parties, concerts, more photo shoots and rehearsals until she goes on an American Idolradio tour across the country. "I have to pinch myself a lot now and say, ‘I'm a recording artist,' " she admits. "I mean, how many years did I think and dream about being a recording artist and being like Mariah Carey? It's pretty amazing. It seems silly, but when you go through something as life-changing as American Idol, you really go, Wow."

Wow it is. With her huge newfound star appeal, McPhee takes it in stride when people around her tell her she reminds them of Catherine Zeta-Jones, a young Elizabeth Taylor and even Natalie Wood.

Moments later, she is posing in a formfitting, gold Dolce & Gabbana number paired with Sergio Rossi stilettos, breaking into singing from time to time for inspiration. For the next eight hours, McPhee changes from one glamorous gown into another and flirts with cameras with the skill of a model. You almost forget that singing is what brought her here. At Bekor's suggestion, she agrees to wear a sequined silver showgirl's outfit, but when he asks her to prop her legs up, she self-consciously looks around. "You can totally see my butt!" Bekor smacks his lips. "Darling, after this photo, everyone is going to want to have your butt."

She laughs at the irony, remembering changing jobs from office assistant to clothing-store clerk to restaurant hostess, not being able to hold a single position for longer than a month. "I'd be so bored," she says with a laugh. "I'm a horrible multitasker. Just ask my boyfriend."

Her boyfriend is actor-turned-producer Nick Cokas, whom McPhee met two years ago when she acted in a show with him. It was an "instant attraction," and the two have been inseparable since.

Eyebrows were raised when the media learned that Cokas was nearly two decades older than McPhee, but it didn't bother either of them. "People are just intrigued, you know?" she says, adding simply that she likes older men ...

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