It's hard to steal the spotlight from the Soprano gang, but when one group of unbilled characters is on screen, eyeballs tend to follow.

Ah, the Bada Bing girls. These scantily clad, Barbie Doll-like women -- bartenders and dancers at Tony Soprano's favorite hangout -- might well be the most noticed "background" actors in TV history. What makes them so special? "It's just the whole package -- the hair, the makeup, the breasts, the body, the confidence," says Anna Maniscalco, casting associate for Grant Wilfley Casting in New York City, who chooses the bartenders and dancers at the fictional Bada Bing Club. "It's the whole air about them."

Needless to say, a key job requirement is a killer body, as the dress code for Bing girls is simple: Bartenders wear microscopic shorts and a skimpy vest. Dancers have fewer frills -- usually just heels and a thong bikini bottom.

"Two seasons ago, I had really, really heavy tan lines, and they wanted to kill me, 'cause they had to spray my whole body and paint me," recalls Nadine Marcelletti of Denville, a Bing dancer since the show's first season.

But apart from camouflaging tan lines or, say, an unwanted tattoo, the dancers' bodies aren't even covered by makeup. "You got cellulite? It's showing, baby," Marcelletti quips. She is among the 20 or so dancers whom Maniscalco uses on a rotation for "The Sopranos" (which begins its third season with back-to-back episodes on March 4). Maniscalco relies on a much smaller pool of bartenders -- only several women, including blond, blue-eyed Grace DeSena of East Hanover, who has been with the series since the first season.

"Grace is just a beautiful woman," Maniscalco says. "She's also sweet, very reliable, and a good actress." In general, the women of the Bing are actresses (or aspiring ones) who consider this job a stepping stone. "A lot of the girls have been able to join SAG [Screen Actors Guild] because of this," Maniscalco notes. She recruits many of the Bing pole dancers from clubs, including Satin Dolls in Lodi, where most of the Bada Bing scenes are shot.

"I need girls who are comfortable being scantily clad," Maniscalco says. "But you don't want, I hate to say this, a sleazy-looking girl. I'm looking for a clean-cut stripper." One Bing girl who did not follow the usual route is Alexandra Morlock, a real estate agent from Elmwood Park who's been a dancer on the show since the second season. Morlock had never danced professionally before. But a friend danced at Satin Dolls, and the club's owner submitted Morlock's photo, along with others, to "The Sopranos."

"They took 30 to 40 girls' pictures, picked three of them, and one of them was me," says Morlock, who studies accounting and finance at Montclair State University. "The first time I did it, I was really nervous. You have to stand there half naked in front of 150 people -- they fill the bar with all those extras. It was totally uncomfortable, but I'm more used to it now. I think, 'All right. It's a show. It's acting. Relax.'" Marcelletti has a dance background and once worked as an exotic dancer.

"I'm very open-minded. I think the body is a beautiful thing, and I don't think anyone should feel inhibited at all," says Marcelletti, a talent scout for Route 17 Entertainment, which books club dancers. "I would like acting to be my main job. But, like golf, it's not a poor man's sport," says Marcelletti, who owns a home in Denville and rents an apartment in Fort Lee for easier access to Manhattan auditions. "I'm a homeowner, and unfortunately, I can't put all my eggs in one basket, so to speak."

Last year, Marcelletti had a short but showy sequence, a scene on a pool table with Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) that appeared in a season-opener montage. Justine Noelle, who'll debut as a Bing girl in the new season, shot a scene in the back room of the Bing, mingling with Soprano's boys. "Basically, we were kind of like decorations. We were all perched on somebody's arm or in somebody's lap," says Noelle, who was hired to play a dancer but wore hot pants in that scene and hasn't danced topless. "I was in a scene where I was being held by James Gandolfini."

Noelle, who grew up in Bergenfield and lives in Bloomfield, points out one inaccuracy about the Bing. "In Jersey, you can't have a topless bar," says Noelle, who has done some exotic dancing in the past. "The laws are you're not allowed to have topless if you have alcohol in the bar. You can be nude, but only if there's no alcohol served."

A regular on WNEW-FM's "The Radio Chick" program, Noelle calls her new TV role "the chance of a lifetime." It enabled her to join SAG. According to Maniscalco, these Bing girls are considered "special extras," and if they appear three times under special SAG requirements, they can apply to become a member of that union. Joining the union can translate into more money and a better chance for a speaking role.

DeSena, of East Hanover, has studied acting and had gotten her SAG card long before "The Sopranos.' Her credits include the new cable series "100 Centre Street," as well as the movies "Mickey Blue Eyes," "Summer of Sam," and "Analyze This" -- in which she had a small but prized part as a widow at a funeral. ("Robert DeNiro kissed me and introduced me to Billy Crystal's character.") The "Analyze This" casting people mentioned the possibility of a role on HBO's "The Sopranos," which was about to start filming its first season. DeSena was hired to play a New York City club-goer in an early episode. Later, DeSena got hired to "run around in lingerie" in a "Sopranos" bordello scene. "And then, last season, they called me for the bartender at the Bada Bing," DeSena says. "They just said, 'you're going to do the bar, serve the drinks, talk to the customers.'"

Lillian Baerga, who'll make her debut as a bartender in the new season, owns her own marketing agency in the Bronx and has had small speaking roles in several movies, including the upcoming "15 Minutes."
Her most memorable "Sopranos" moment: A scene in which Gandolfini's Soprano had to slam another character in the head with a singing-fish plaque -- but the fish kept flying off. "They had to keep gluing it back," Baerga says. "James had to be really angry in the scene, and everybody kept just busting out laughing." When that scene airs this season, be sure to check out the faces of the Bing girls behind Tony.