Take this Job and Love it

PHYLLIS
Phyllis Smith

JOB Sales rep
DESK DATA ''She's shy and wants to fit in with the rest of the group,'' says Smith. ''And she gives Michael more grace than most of the other characters, who just think he's an idiot.''
FROM CASTING TO CAST Smith, a professional burlesque dancer whose career ended in the early '80s after an injury, was a casting associate on the pilot. And because the director kept laughing when she read with the actors, he ultimately swiped her for the show. ''I really thought this [acting] ship had sailed 20 years ago,'' she says, beaming. ''It just never happens this way.''

OSCAR
Oscar Nuñez

JOB Accountant
DESK DATA ''He's the guy who keeps his personal life separate from his professional,'' says Nuñez. ''It's not an awful job, so he won't kill himself. But he's not very invested in it.''
LOVE STORY When the actor Oscar got the recent script revealing that the show's Oscar was in a committed homosexual relationship (a plot point that sailed right over a typically clueless Dwight's head), it came as a surprise. ''Greg Daniels came up and said, 'Is it all right if we make your character gay?' I said, 'Well...the script's already done — so yes.'''

KELLY
Mindy Kaling

JOB Customer relations
DESK DATA Daniels hired Kaling as a writer-actress after seeing her Off Broadway comedy Matt & Ben, about the early days of Damon and Affleck. ''Kelly is the other writers' way of teasing me,'' says Kaling, ''because I think it's their exaggerated version of me. Apparently, I sound like a 13-year-old girl when I talk.''
SLAP SHOT Daniels wasn't sure where to use Kaling on screen. Then came the episode about Michael's bungled attempt at holding a ''Diversity Day'' and Daniels needed a minority to slap Michael. ''Since then,'' she says, ''I've been in the show.''

WHAT'S NEXT FOR STEVE

Michael Scott may be strictly 9-to-5, but in the coming year, Steve Carell will be working 24/7. A few of his many projects:

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Carell plays a gay, suicidal Proust scholar trapped on a road trip with Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette. Fox Searchlight bought the dark comedy for $10.5 million at Sundance. (Summer)
EVAN ALMIGHTY
Jim Carrey dropped out, so the script was reworked for Carell's Bruce Almighty anchor Evan Baxter. In this sequel, Morgan Freeman's God tells Carell to build an ark. (Dec. 22)
DAN IN REAL LIFE
Traveling to his family's summer house for an annual reunion, Carell's advice columnist — a widower with three daughters — falls for a woman in a bookstore. Unfortunately, she's his brother's (Dane Cook) visiting girlfriend. (Production starts in October)
GET SMART
Maxwell Smart will be Carell's second big-screen take on a '60s sitcom character after perfectly mimicking Paul Lynde's Uncle Arthur in Bewitched. Will Ferrell was once attached, and the script is still being honed, presumably to find a way to convert Smart's shoe phone to cellular.