Profile : Beltway Casting : ACTRESS WHO PLAYS MCGOVERN, ‘MURPHY BROWN’S’ NEW REPORTER, HAS REAL D.C. EXPERIENCE

“It’s so much fun that I’m getting paid to dress up in these funky clothes and sass Murphy Brown,” says Paula Korologos, the newest addition to the CBS Monday-night series.

Korologos plays conservative television reporter McGovern, which is fitting, almost to the point of typecasting. In real life she is the daughter of Republican lobbyist Tom Korologos, grew up in the political whirl of Washington and is a former Capitol Hill intern.

Landing the role on “Murphy Brown” is still a rush for the 24-year-old actress, who has added spunk to the long-running series in its next-to-last season.

McGovern is patterned after MTV’s one-named Republican personality Kennedy. “I’m nothing like Kennedy--not because I have anything against her, but that’s not what I’m going for,” she adds.

“She (McGovern) dresses really funky and is really conservative. I’m actually quite conservative, but with a liberal outlook. I guess I’m confused.”

Korologos grew up in Great Falls, Va., and still calls it home. She went to Langley High School near there, but “was very involved in theater probably since the fourth grade, just fell in love with it. Then I went from Langley to the Goodman School of Theater, which is affiliated with DePaul University in Chicago.”

She was graduated from Goodman two years ago and went on to theater work in the Windy City.

“I was going to give myself five years to get onstage at the Goodman or Steppenwolf,” she says, “and it took two months.” She landed a role in Steve Martin’s “Picasso at the Lapin Agile.”

When Martin moved the play to Los Angeles (Westwood Playhouse), a “Murphy Brown” casting director saw it and asked her to audition, as one of 60, for the part of McGovern.

“The reason we chose Paula is off of her role in the Steve Martin play,” says “Murphy” executive producer John Bowman. “She was getting rave reviews.

“What’s unique about her is that she’s extremely smart, which is important to this show. It helps to understand the references, if you know who these people are”--such as congressional Republicans Newt Gingrich and Robert Dole--”even nicer if you’ve actually met them.”

Bowman adds: “We don’t want to have this conservative fall-person who is bumbling and idiotic.” McGovern is meant to contrast with the liberal journalists on “Murphy.”

“I grew up in an intensely political world,” she says, and credits her family for encouraging her when she chose a career in the arts. Her older brother, a lawyer, went to Cornell, and her sister studied archeology at the College of William and Mary.

“I was definitely the black sheep of the family,” she says. “I’m very emotional and dramatic. My father says I’ve been acting since I got out of the womb.

“My father’s attitude is you must follow your bliss, and I did, and he supported me all the way.”

When Paula landed the “Murphy Brown” role, her dad called friend and former Vice President Dan Quayle.

“I said, ‘Guess where Paula went?’ ”

It may have been the first time Quayle laughed about anything concerning “Murphy Brown” since he publicly criticized Candice Bergen’s character for bearing a child out of wedlock.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole congratulated her too, Tom Korologos recalls. “I told her every time the camera goes on to say, ‘Dole ’96.’ Dole said, ‘Smart girl.’ ”

Her parents flew out to see a taping.

“That was exciting,” her father says. “I’d never seen anything quite like that. It was good to see the anatomy of a sitcom. You learn a lot. My wife (Joy) went with me, and Paula’s two aunts ... We met Candice. What a delightful woman.”

The show’s producers have hopes that Korologos will add spice to the series, which airs its last new episode May 15 and wraps up with an hour finale of highlights on May 22.

“Murphy Brown” airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBS.