SHOE SHOT: Believe it or not - Robert Downey Jr.'s shoes show a man on horseback who's turning around to shoot somebody.

Look into the soles of the glitterati and you'll find some telling foot notes. It takes some fancy footwork to make it to the top of the entertainment world. Those who hit it big know when to march to the beat of their own drummer, when to toe the straight and narrow and when to take a walk on the wilde side. Hollywood's current darlings are cooling their heels in cowboy boots, with some very famous feet getting shod at the Fred Segal shoe store on L.A.'s trendy Melrose Avenue. Cher for one, who recently stepped out with a $660 pair of black El Vaquero boots adorned with rhinestones and gold brocade. Melrose Avenue is also the site of Mark Fox, where Bruce Springsteen and main squeeze Patti Scialfa go to boot up. Across town in Beverly Hills, an awfull lot of stars are playing footsie with one Fred Hayman. Seen leaving his store recently were Madonna, Kim Basinger, Joan van Ark and superagent Sue Mengers. "Power pums" for all, perhaps? Make no mistake - shoe biz is big biz. Nearly a billion pairs of shoes are purchased yearly - and not all of them by Cher. Doing his bit to boost the per capita consumation of footwear is Eddy Murphy. Besides buying for himself (including rattlesnake as well as leopard boots at Fred Segal's), Murphy bought more than a dozen pairs recently for a girlfriend at the Shauna Stein shop in L.A. Now, with apologies in advance for stepping on a few toes, let's meet the feet and peruse of the shoes of some celebrated pacesetters.