For those of us who don't drink cosmos and will never bother to learn the proper pronunciation of Manolo Blahnik -- straight guys, in other words -- there was still one great reason to watch ''Sex and the City'': Kim Cattrall.

Of course, the show's other characters were all smart, witty and occasionally (except for that Carrie Bradshaw) naked representations of modern American women. But Cattrall's Samantha Jones was just ... something else. Insatiable, self-sufficient, unsentimental and simultaneously the most mature and hottest of the bunch. What heterosexual male wouldn't want to be with her? Or, in a way he really shouldn't be threatened about feeling, want to be like her?

''I think she has a lot of male energy,'' the British-born, British Columbia-raised Cattrall says of her most famous role. ''With Samantha, it's sex with no strings attached, and that can be described as more of a male fantasy than a female fantasy. But the writers were gay men and straight women.

''What was so refreshing about Samantha, and what I think men could get behind was her frankness in seeing relationships for what they were, not expecting marriage and babies and the white picket fence.

''She went beyond the cliche that I think women feel that they must have to be happy. She didn't want to play by any of those rules; she wants to play against the rules.''

In the new ''Sex and the City'' movie, opening Friday, Sam's been trying her hand at, to paraphrase a euphemism used in the film, coloring within the lines. For four years she's lived happily in Malibu with her younger, actor lover Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis). But beefy temptation has hit the beach, and Sam may not be able to sublimate her natural hungers, despite a remarkable scene involving sushi.

It was Cattrall who initially balked at making a big-screen version of the revolutionary HBO series after it came to an end in 2004.

''Kim just wasn't ready to be Samantha again,'' Michael Patrick King, the show's executive producer and movie's writer-director, diplomatically puts it.

At the time it was reported that she felt herself and sister cast members Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis should get something closer to the payoff Sarah Jessica Parker was reaping from the phenomenon.

But Cattrall, who up until ''SATC'' started in 1998 was best known for appearing in the likes of ''Porky's,'' ''Police Academy'' and the odd ''Star Trek'' sequel, says a number of factors made her hesitate to dive right back into the City.

''Really, I just needed to get away,'' she explains. ''It was a fabulous, tough, long, hard six years. I'd never done a series before and I had worked some 18, 19 hour days, but that was pretty much a weekly routine for us. I loved doing it, it was fantastic.

''But when they said they weren't going to pick it up and we were going to leave it on a high note, part of me went into a funk and part of me was just exhausted.

''And there were events in my life. I was going through a divorce, and because I was on a hit TV show that became very public and that was tough. Then my dad was diagnosed with dementia. I was just, I need to take a timeout and I need to go home. So I started saying yes to projects that were in Canada, where I have family and a lot of friends.

''Then a year and a half ago when they called me about doing this, it felt right. I felt stronger and better. I think the four years away for all of us was really great. And the anticipation just seems to have escalated as well. So I guess that things happen when they're supposed to.''

Indeed, the show has only grown more popular worldwide through edited reruns on basic cable and broadcast TV. Large, excited crowds gathered at the movie's New York shooting locations last fall, and there have been more breathless rumors spread about what happens in the film than any other summer release ... and there's an Indiana Jones sequel we've waited two decades for out there.

For Cattrall, who's been writing books and doing acclaimed stage work in New York and London during her ''Sex'' hiatus, that also means revived press attention. Mirroring Sam, she's hooked up with a younger man, chef Alan Wyse, and that of course has driven the tabloid media into a confusing-reality-with-fiction frenzy.

''People write that I cook in the nude with my boyfriend,'' she notes, chuckling. ''I think, why would I cook in the nude? I mean, there's hot oil on the stove at any given moment. All these things that people think: that you're a diva because Sam's so grand; and also that I'm a sex maniac . ... That one I can live with! In the four years, those things have been quieting down. But now it's just gonna be (sighs), one week to go.''

Cattrall sure agrees with Samantha on one point, though: There's nothing like a younger lover.

''There's 23 years difference, which is huge,'' she says of her and Wyse. ''Most of my friends said, 'Go girl, go do it.' And these young guys? You are going to change their lives irrevocably in a fantastic way! They should be so frickin' lucky, that's what I say.''

Sounds just like one of the midlife guys, doesn't she? One thing that's different about Sam in the movie is that she's able to celebrate her 50th birthday with no apparent angst.

''She used to lie about her age,'' Cattrall acknowledges. ''I'm 51, so I came to terms with it about a year-and-a-half before she did. I was dreading it, especially over the month right before. The night before, I kind of tossed and turned. But when I woke up the next morning, I really didn't feel any different, and the next day I just sort of let it go.

''It was a similar experience for me when I was asked to do the series. I was 41, it was 10 years ago. I really didn't think I could pull off being a vamp in my 40s. Y'know, we accuse people of ageism, but I think we have it for ourselves as well. But shows like 'Sex and the City' and characters like Samantha change your idea of what 40 or even 50 is. So I felt like, if we can do it at 40, then what the hell? Let's do it with this.''

Even if many of them tuned in hoping to catch a nude glimpse or two, Cattrall hopes that watching ''Sex and the City'' changed a lot of males for the better.

''I've heard a couple of men say this and maybe this is also my wishful thinking: That it taught them about the consequences of men's actions and how they affect women,'' the thrice-divorced actress reveals.

''It showed the female side of a breakup, it showed the female side of a disappointing encounter, sexual or otherwise.

''I don't think that perspective had been previously explored in this kind of depth. Maybe that makes men feel differently about the way that they go about dealing with women. I also think that they really enjoy it, and that it scares the hell out of them. But those are all good things.''