When Hilary Duff first launched her second career as a recording artist, she was able to take a break from acting to focus on performing -- but with her upcoming schedule, she's about to risk whiplash switching between the two.

Ending her break from acting, Duff is slated to start work later this month on her first of two upcoming movies (see [article id="1477947"]"Hilary Duff Plans Break From Movies"[/article]). The first, "Heart of Summer," is a music drama in which she plays a small-town teenage girl who comes of age once she tries to become a singer. After losing her brother in a tragic car accident, Duff's character discovers that her late brother had secretly submitted an application for her to attend the summer session of a prestigious performing-arts academy. She has to lie to her father to go, but when she does, she confronts her lack of formal training and learns to fend for herself. Annie Potts co-stars in the Sean McNamara-directed film, due out later this year.

The second project, called "The Perfect Man," about a teen and her single mom, starts shooting in April. Until then, however, Duff's booked a few shows on weekends in locations to make it easy for her to travel back and forth from the Los Angeles set of "Heart of Summer." Her first weekend set consists of concerts right next door at Universal Amphitheatre in Universal City on January 24 and then just a few hours south at the Cox Arena in San Diego on January 25. The following weekend, she'll perform at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas on February 7 before presenting at the Grammys in Los Angeles on February 8 (see [article id="1480933"]"Jay-Z, Beyonce, Outkast, Pharrell Nab Most Grammy Nominations"[/article]).

Once both film shoots are completed, though, Duff plans to hit the road again full force. She's currently ironing out the details for a summer headlining tour, during which she would hit about 40 cities in all.

Duff can next be seen in the teen romantic comedy "A Cinderella Story," due out in July. She completed work on that flick before her last tour.