Eva Longoria.

BEVERLY HILLS — Desperate Housewives sex kitten Gabrielle would be mortified.

But here is fashionista and spokesmodel Eva Longoria, surrounded by journalists during a roundtable interview at the Four Seasons, stopping in mid-sentence to pluck something off the back of her blouse. The culprit? A renegade price tag.

“I always do this,” laments the 31-year-old starlet with a laugh. “I have tags on my clothes when I go out. I was out last night and there was a big price tag hanging (off her clothes). We were taking a picture and my friend was like, ‘What’s that?’ ”

Like we said, mortified.

But Longoria — as Michael Douglas, her co-star in the new political thriller The Sentinel, will tell you — is far from the delicate diva most folks would peg her as, particularly those 20-million-plus viewers who tune in every Sunday to watch the goings-on of the Wisteria Lane waif.

Namely, Longoria — who plays a Secret Service agent — is as comfortable wielding a gun as Paris Hilton is cradling a miniature poodle.

Longoria’s marksmanship came much to the dismay of Douglas, who also produced the In The Line of Fire-meets-The Fugitive drama about a veteran member of the service wrongly accused of conspiring to assassinate the commander-in-chief. Longoria plays Jill Marin alongside Kiefer Sutherland, assigned to hunt the Douglas character after he goes on the run.

“It was humiliating, to be honest,” says the 61-year-old Oscar winner of being outgunned by the 5-ft.-2 rookie.

“She shoots better than 90 percent of police officers in our country. She grew up on a ranch in San Antonio. Her dad had her shooting target practice when she was six years old.”

Longoria admits her Secret Service character is “closer to who I am” than flighty, frothy Gabrielle.

“I’m from Texas. I grew up with guns. My dad was educating us early about guns, so we used to go target shooting all the time — beer cans, coffee cans, anything that exploded and made noise.”

Besides, she notes, most of her pre-Housewives roles consisted of cops roles in such short-lived series as L.A. Dragnet. “It required intense SWAT training from the LAPD … All the roles I did before Desperate Housewives were cops and detectives. (The Sentinel) was coming back home to me.”

Which is not to suggest she wasn’t intimidating by the chance to star opposite Hollywood veterans Douglas and Sutherland.

“Romancing the Stone is one of my favourite movies,” she enthuses when asked about the first Douglas movie she remembers seeing.

“For Kiefer, it was Lost Boys. If you told me when I saw Lost Boys, that I’d be doing a movie with Kiefer, I would’ve thought you were crazy.”

Now, with her roles becoming increasingly prominent, so too has the media glare on her life. Longoria was transformed from fledgling unknown to one of Hollywood’s most photographed and sought-after celebrities in a scant 18 months.

Yet, Longoria says she’s managed to avoid fame’s pitfalls so far.

Stars stumble, she says, “when you believe your own hype and get caught up in the superficiality of the business.”

But she is resigned, she adds, to the realities of today’s celebrity culture and the media that feeds it.

“If you don’t give them what they want, they’ll make it up anyway,” sighs Longoria whose relationship with San Antonio Spur Tony Parker has generated its share of headlines.

“I did a wonderful article in Allure where we talked about many things, including some personal stuff. And I said I’m the experienced one because I’ve been married, divorced, broken up, engaged, and he’s been in only one serious relationship. Then it just got torn up in (the press), saying I’m the teacher of sex! Where did you get that from? You never win.

“I dated someone before Tony who I was very private about and it was ‘Trouble in Paradise: Eva won’t speak.’ Then with Tony I’ve been open about it, saying it’s great and we’re in love and it’s ‘Trouble in Paradise: Eva Speaks Out.’

“You cannot win.”

One of the more outrageous reports she heard about herself had her “fleeing Frederick’s of Hollywood in a purple — they were very specific — panties and bra, out on the street, yelling to the valet to pull my silver BMW around because my golden retriever Razzle went into emergency surgery … First of all, Frederick’s doesn’t have a valet. And I’ve never even been to Frederick’s of Hollywood.”

Nor does she have a silver BMW.

Nor … well, you get the idea.

“It’s getting worse,” she continues. “There’s a new magazine every week. I don’t understand how they stay afloat. But then I see someone reading it and I think, ‘Well, there’s the demand.’

“And the Internet is insane. If it’s printed on one site, it’s factual … (Parker) hates coming here and visiting. He hates the bounty that exists today for gossip and pictures. He loves movies. He’s a movie guy. He loves certain actors … but he hates the (gossip). With him being an athlete, they don’t experience that — at least not with the Spurs.”

Never mind the reports out of the Desperate Housewives set. Last year, it was catfights and feuds. This year, much of the press has centred on the critical lambasting the show has received in its sophomore season. Longoria, who has a seven-year contract with Housewives, balks at suggestions the show, either creatively or commercially, is in trouble.

“We haven’t slowed down. A ratings slump? Twenty five million people? How is that a slump? Even if we slowed down by half, it’s still a highly-rated show. If we were doing 14 million a week, that’s still better than 90 per cent of the shows on television.”

And personally, she adds, “Gabrielle is so big and fun to play. I’m lucky to be able to do that as an actor — to play someone who is so much the opposite of me.”

Who she’ll play next — specifically during the show’s forthcoming summer hiatus when actors go off to shoot a movie — remains a question mark.

“The biggest problem is fitting (a film) in because I have a very small shooting window … I would love to do a romantic comedy, but 80 per cent of the scripts I get are dramatic.”

And fewer still — surprisingly — call for Longoria to utilize her, shall we say, feminine wiles. “I’m not really adamant about going against sexy. I’m going with sexy for as long as it will take me. Women have an expiration date in this business.”

Speaking of sex, and specifically the shedding of Longoria’s apparel, there is the recent matter of Maxim magazine celebrating its 100th issue by constructing a 75-by-110-ft. billboard featuring its cover image of Longoria — billed as TV’s Sexiest Earthling.

“I was really honoured when Maxim called and said you know we’re celebrating our 100th issue and we want to honour your cover because it was a popular cover.”

Popular enough to be seen from a satellite since Maxim teamed with Google Earth for the stunt.

“You can see it from space, which makes me feel kind of weird and nervous. If any aliens are passing by, they’ll come looking for me first.”

Dangling price tags and all.