So what’s new with Caterina Scorsone? Be prepared for a long answer.

She is shooting her second season as psychic Jess Mastriani on the crime drama/mystery FBI series 1-800 Missing (8 p.m. Wednesdays on VR) but feels as though she’s starting over. For one thing, there is a new title: Missing. "We get letters from India, the Czech Republic, Austria . . . and 1-800 means nothing to them," Scorsone explained over soup at Kalendar Koffee House on College. "If you dial 1-800 somewhere in the U.S., you get a hotline for missing cattle."

She has a new sidekick. Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill) has replaced Gloria Reuben, who left to pursue a music career - Reuben was famously a backing singer/dancer for Tina Turner. Which necessitated a new theme song, since Reuben had also written and sung the old one.

There is a new FBI headquarters. They are no longer based in Indianapolis. Now it’s Washington, D.C.

There is a new boss. Adios Dean McDermott, hello Justin Louis as John Pollack, the new "tough, hard-nosed" assistant director of the FBI.

There is a new special agent. Mark Consuelos (All My Children) has come onboard as Antonio Cortez, forensic specialist.

The series’ tag line is "common sense and sixth sense." Add a sense of survival. Scorsone alone managed to make the cut: She is the only returning cast member. Moreover, her character got an upgrade from part-time psychic, helping out the FBI on a freelance basis, to a regular gig and office. She’s an agent, not a rookie, and second lead.

Scorsone is very politic about the exit of Reuben, all the while giving Fox an unqualified rave review.

"Vivica is 100-per-cent committed," she stresses. "There are two of us on the team and she is so enthusiastic and it ripples down to everyone.

"It’s better, sexier, faster-paced with more action sequences. There is at least one gun battle with kung fu roundhouse kicks. We’re aspiring to be the new Cagney & Lacey.

"We do punches, kicks and gun hand-ling. I went to a shooting range and I have a scar on my belly. I shot 170 rounds and on the last take, one of the blank cartridges got stuck in my top and burned. I got a bullet wound. It’s so butch, I say it’s a tattoo."

Scorsone is a sheer delight, extremely gregarious, charming and anecdotal. People are drawn to her naturally - she seems to know all the staff at the Kalendar. That she was born and raised in the Annex could be a factor. She still lives there, close to her Italian family.

Scorsone is the third of five kids, four girls and a boy. The eldest two girls are twins; her lone brother is a university student; one of her sisters is an Egyptologist; and one sister is a published poet and performer.

"I’m like the freak who ran away with the circus," she grins.

Scorsone is 22 but could easily pass for a teenager. How she does it with a gruelling shooting schedule is an assignment for geneticists.

"I start 5:40 a.m. on Monday when I have makeup pickup," she says. "Last year, during the entire season, I had four days off. My entire metabolism is different. I have 5 1/2 hours sleep a night because you have script analysis for each day after you wrap."

She learned discipline and getting by on no sleep during her two seasons on Power Play.

"I learned discipline working with Michael Riley," she said. "He played the general manager of the (hockey) team and I was his daughter. He is a role model for work ethic. Wow, I have to do a series for eight months and no sleep."

In addition, she was juggling acting and academia. "When I was 19, I decided to go to university because I felt the (showbiz) industry was morally bankrupt. I was jaded. I was at U of T doing literary studies, comparative religions and poli-sci. I was thinking of going into international development but studying all those subjects brought me back to an appreciation of the arts: The world is a big place and it gave me the freedom to do this.

"I was at Trinity College - don’t judge me, we only wore the gowns at dinner. In my third year of university, I got Missing. I shot it during university. I got friends to tape my classes and I got extensions on essays. I shot the pilot while doing exams - only one professor (sociology) gave me problems."

Both of Scorsone’s parents have PhDs. "My sisters have their Masters and there is just as much backbiting and gossip in academia.

"Growing up, my only obligation was to be curious. At 15, I explored Buddhism. I am 2 1/2 credits away from graduating. It’ll happen - I enjoy it too much not to do it. I like lectures and book lists."

Scorsone did her studying on ESP.

"I saw a psychic," she reveals. "It was fascinating, she seemed so normal. She had this little apartment: a couple of dogs, a torn carpet. She read tea leaves and did cards and sat there smoking. She was very matter-of-fact; there was nothing otherworldly. I’m still waiting for some of the predictions to come true. None of them would send me spiralling into depression."

She’s been acting since she was 8. She did Mr. Dressup from 1991 to ’94.

"I was Caterina from down the street, we’d hang out and sing songs," she recalls. "It was extracurricular for me; some people play hockey. And it was so gradual. My goal when I was little was to have enough money to go to university. I was 15 when it finally occurred to me that this is what I could be doing for a living."

She’s done a wide range of roles, from heroin-addicted teen prostitute in The Third Miracle to tough, headstrong boss’s daughter in Power Play.

"I like to play strong, smart women."

She played Babyface in the TV-movie Annus Horribilus directed by Eric Stoltz, a "dear friend. He’s one of the most wonderful people in the industry. It’s the first film I did after deciding to go to university. I played Babyface, best friend of the lead, Allison Mack, who is on Smallville and has a crush on Superman (Tom Welling)."

Like, who doesn’t?

Scorsone describes the opening sequence of Missing as "very Jodie Foster in Silence Of The Lambs.

"I’m basically playing Jess as a young woman with a talent and she’s been struggling and grappling with how to deploy this talent. Before, Jess had psychic visions and called in tips. They commandeered her for the FBI and threw her into situations she was not trained to handle."

Scorsone’s Egyptologist sister Joanna just happened to walk by the restaurant. She works at the ROM and lives in the ’hood.

"Because everyone in the family is so interesting and curious about the world," Joanna says, "it makes for interesting dinner conversation."

Our conversation with her kid sister was over. Scorsone had a date with her 3-year-old niece. The next day, she had a date with her co-star Fox to walk the red carpet at the MuchMusic Video Awards. And they stopped traffic.

Cagney & Lacey never looked so good.