By MONICA CORCORAN, Photographs: SHERYL NIELDS

arla Gugino doesn't scare easily. After all, she can fire a Remington shotgun without flinching and dash downhill in four-inch heels.

Still not convinced? For her latest role as a hard-edged crime-scene investigator in Righteous Kill (which opens this month), Gugino had to hold her own alongside legendary tough guys Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. And even that didn't rattle her.

"Honestly, I wasn't intimidated about working with Bob and Al. I was more excited to have the opportunity. And actually, they're really fun guys," says Gugino, 37, who shows up to lunch in Los Angeles looking ready for a church picnic in a frilly white eyelet wrap dress, modest diamond studs and red espadrilles. It's hard to fathom this five-foot-four beauty shouting, "Freeze or I'll shoot!" But trust Gugino when she says that it's all about the weapon. "I don't own a gun and I have a lot of feelings about them that aren't positive, but I get why people are drawn to them. Just carrying a gun gives you this sense of power and authority. It's fascinating to me."

To prepare for Righteous Kill, Gugino also pored over real New York crime-scene photos.

"It was horrifying to see all those personal details. I'm pretty tough, but that was the one time I thought to myself, Maybe I really did not need to see those images."

Indeed, in a town dominated by blondes as skinny as whippets, Gugino has carved out a niche as the brainy, daring brunette with agate-green eyes and dangerous curves. Forget about the girl next door. Over her 22-year career, she has played an alcoholic U.S. Marshal, a rocket scientist, a lesbian parole officer and a kooky astrophysicist, among others. "Someone recently asked me, 'You play so many roles. Why aren't you more well known?'" she says. "And I thought about it, and maybe it's because I am always playing so many different characters. But that's what I love
about acting."

This month, Gugino also returns to the small screen in Entourage as the sexy talent agent with a heart of steel. Is the industry really so brutal? Do agents really scream obscenities and throw hot lattes at their assistants? "I hate to say it, but the show is accurate. Hollywood is really like that," she says. "Sometimes I will read a script and just think, Ugh. This town is so terrible."
And while she may share the screen with gaggles of guys, don't mistake her for one of them. "I'm always surrounded by boys, which is funny because I am such a girl's girl," says Gugino, who is warm and intense and much too smart to be self-centered. Ask her to describe herself in three words and she's quick to retort, "What about you?" before she thinks long and hard and answers, "Adventurous, gullible and passionate." She also pulls out a pot of cherry-red lip-gloss and gushes like a BFF: "You have to get this because you can use it on your cheeks, too. It's amazing" . . .

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