Zooey Deschanel, star of the sassy new Fox comedy TV series "New Girl," was supposed to meet a reporter for breakfast after her appearance on "Live With Regis and Kelly." However, a throng of paparazzi trailed her from the studio to an Upper West Side restaurant a few blocks away, where the reporter was waiting. While her publicist called to arrange an alternate breakfast site, Deschanel registered a mixed emotion of amusement and amazement that this kind of thing could be happening to her.

"I am NOT very famous," Deschanel laughed.

Even so, at 31, Deschanel is a seasoned actress who has logged mainstream credits in films like "Elf", ''Yes Man" as well as the art-house fare "Almost Famous", ''500 Days of Summer" and ''Our Idiot Brother" which she is more closely identified.

Deschanel comes from a show-biz stock that includes her Oscar-nominated cinematographer father, Caleb, and her actress mother, Mary Jo, as well as sister, Emily, who stars on the long-running Fox crime series "Bones."

She is mega-pretty with her trademark raven bangs, creamy skin and blue eyes that seem in a state of perpetual surprise. At first look, Deschanel has a striking resemblance to singer Katy Perry in which the actress is often mistaken for.

On the TV show, Deschanel plays Jess Day. She is a schoolteacher who is goofy, good-natured and unguarded in her dealings with the world and particularly tone-deaf with respect to men. When she catches her boyfriend in their apartment with another woman, she bolts for new quarters that she finds on Craigslist. It is a spacious loft she will share with three guys played by Jake Johnson, Max Greenfield and, replacing Damon Wayans, Jr., after the pilot, Lamorne Morris who, despite their reservations, welcomed her as surrogate big brothers.

For "New Girl" to completely succeed, and many critics think it succeeds brilliantly, the viewer must believe that a beautiful girl can also be such a dork and that her social life and general well-being are routinely toppled. "I made a career being cast as smart-aleck-type characters, but I'm not sarcastic at all. I'm not ironic. I'm very sincere, generally. So, this role played into a part of myself that I hadn't been using on the screen," the actress shares.

"I haven't quite seen yet what that does to my personal life and freedom," she said, noting with a chuckle. "This has been my first weird paparazzi chase. But I think it was just a weird fluke. I really think those guys just wanted the exercise," Deschanel further added. Now, she is just waiting to discover how the TV series "New Girl" and the higher prominence it might bring impact and changes in her life.