HOLLYWOOD -- Adults are sure to get a little misty-eyed when Julie Andrews, everyone's favorite English nanny, performs a duet with pop singer Raven in "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement." The duo pair up on "Your Crowning Glory," a cheerful tune delivered to Andrews' on-screen granddaughter, Princess Mia (Anne Hathaway), and her guests during a festive slumber party scene.

Andrews, 68, insists that the duet is not meant to be her big singing comeback.
(The songstress was all but silenced six years ago following a botched throat surgery. She sued the surgeon and reportedly won a $30 million settlement.)

"I don't want people to say the voice is back, because it isn't," she says, looking angelic in a white pantsuit. The song she sings in the film "is exquisitely tailored for the way I am. As such, I am delighted to do it."

OK, so she doesn't quite belt it out as she might have done before the surgery, which put a premature end to her 40-year music career. Nevertheless, Andrews' "sing-speak" performance in the new Disney film is bound to make baby boomers who grew up on "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music" nostalgic.

Fans can thank director Garry Marshall ("Pretty Woman," "Runaway Bride") for convincing Andrews, who once had a four-octave range, to give it a try. The veteran filmmaker assured the legendary entertainer that if she didn't like the way the scene turned out, he would cut it.

Raven (of Disney Channel's "That's So Raven") does the heavy lifting on the high notes, but Andrews holds her own. Andrews says she thoroughly enjoyed working with the hip-hop artist. The scene was extra special because it gave Andrews a chance to work with her real life granddaughter, 10-year-old Hannah Schneider, who performs a few hip-hop moves as an extra.

"She's a wonderful little dancer," says the proud grandma. "I have to say, even the movie doesn't do her justice."

Keeping it all in the family was the general spirit on the set of Marshall's sequel to the 2001 hit, which was based on the popular young-adult novel by Meg Cabot. Marshall employed various relatives -- his wife, son, daughter, niece and a couple of grandchildren -- as extras. "Nepotism reigns," exclaims Andrews, smiling.

"Princess Diaries 2" marks the first time the veteran actress has reprised a film role in her long and storied career. She had no hesitation about returning as the elegant and benevolent Queen Clarisse of Genovia (an idyllic fictional European country), who must prepare her granddaughter for the throne.

"At the end of the first movie, we knew each other very well, so for the second one it was like coming home," she says. "In this one, we just went a little further. We tweaked the characters and we used the characteristics that we knew people liked (from the original) and followed avenues in the script that we knew people wanted."

"Princess Diaries 2" picks up five years after Mia, a gawky San Francisco high school student, discovered she was the heir to the throne of Genovia. She is now a college graduate prepared to move to Genovia to take on her royal duties and get to know her countrymen. But just as she is getting settled into her new role, her succession is challenged by an ambitious viscount (John Rhys-Davies) who wants install his handsome young nephew on the throne. Mia is given a month to find a husband or forfeit her claim to the crown. With her grandmother's help, Mia begins screening eligible suitors to be her groom.

Will she fulfill her royal obligation or wait for love? Let's just say this is not your typical happily ever after.

"This one has a lot more tension and drama than the first," observes Andrews.

Reuniting on-screen with Hathaway, the doe-eyed beauty of "Ella Enchanted," was a delight for Andrews, who says, "She's even more beautiful and she has enormous talent. She's smart and getting a wonderful education. We're good friends and I love her very much."

Andrews was pleased to explore further her regal character's quirks in the sequel. She sees Queen Clarisse as "practical, very down-to-earth, but slightly eccentric. She is a very good monarch in that she cares so much for her country. But she's also slightly wacky and perhaps a bit naive in some ways."

Is Andrews anything like the grandmother she plays on-screen?

"Probably," she says with a twinkle in her eye. "I expect good manners and politeness from my grandkids, as I did my own kids, and I like to spoil them. That's one of the perks."

Born and raised in England, Andrews served as the unofficial expert on royal protocol on the set, giving her American director tips on continental customs and language. "He was darling with me, because I kept saying, 'They wouldn't say that in Europe,'" she recalls in her lilting English accent.

For all Queen Clarisse's adherence to traditions and protocol, she isn't stodgy. Indeed, the widowed monarch is rather adventurous, joining the kids in surfing down a staircase on a mattress. Andrews even did her own surfing, though she admits it took a few takes to get it right.

Mattress surfing aside, Andrews is enjoying a wave of good fortune this year. "Shrek 2," in which she provided the voice of Queen Lillian (Princess Fiona's mother), was a No. 1 hit at the box office and has earned more than $430 million domestically.

In February, her husband of 35 years, legendary filmmaker Blake Edwards, was recognized for lifetime achievement at the Oscars. And the couple recently became grandparents for a seventh time.

"It's been an amazing year," she says, knocking on wood. "What a gift."

She also published her twelfth book, "Dragon," aimed at young adults. "This was the first book that I've written that I felt I had to do," says Andrews, who co-authored the historic mystery novel with her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton. "I stumbled across the legend, a 14th century French tale about this beautiful white wolfhound."

Andrews has been writing for nearly 30 years, and her children's series of books on Dumpy the Dump Truck are a favorite among the preschool set. She is currently in negotiations with Sesame Workshop to bring the franchise to PBS for launch in Fall 2006. She is uncertain as to the extent of her involvement in the program, but the beloved actress says she "passionately believes in children's television."

For most fans, though, Andrews will always be associated with her memorable performances in "Mary Poppins" and "The Sound of Music." Born Julie Elizabeth Wells in Surrey, England, she was introduced to her craft at an early age by her mother and stepfather, both show business veterans. By the time she was 8 she was singing in concert halls throughout Britain.

She made her Broadway debut at 19 and cemented her status as a bona fide star two years later on the Great White Way by originating the role of Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." She lost out to Audrey Hepburn in the film version for lack of big-screen experience.

The next year, however, she landed the role of Mary Poppins over Hepburn and went on to win an Oscar. She was nominated a year later for her singing nun in "The Sound of Music." She also starred on Broadway as Queen Guinevere opposite Richard Burton in "Camelot."

Though she entered the spotlight via the musical stage, Andrews showed her dramatic chops early on in films like "The Americanization of Emily" and the Hitchcock thriller "Torn Curtain." She hosted an Emmy-winning variety show in the 1970s and moved into even edgier film roles. She collaborated with Edwards in "Victor/Victoria," in which she played a woman pretending to be a drag queen. She garnered a third Oscar nomination for that role, which she revived on stage in 1996. (It remains one of her favorites.) She shattered her squeaky clean image when she bared her breasts in the 1981 Hollywood farce "S.O.B," directed by her husband.

Lately, though, she has returned to wholesome family films. In 2003, she starred as the nanny in the made-for-TV adaptation of "Eloise at the Plaza."

Currently, she is wrestling with writing her memoirs. "I'm three years overdue," she confesses. "My publishers are being very generous with me."

She says she'll likely enlist her daughter, Emma, to assist her. "It's daunting, because I want to find the right voice for it," she says. "I'd like it to be a good biography. I just have to do it and let it out."