NEW YORK'You could say Kim Cattrall looks amazing in anything ' including only some well-placed pieces of sushi.

Amid the carnival of colourful designer dresses and sky-high heels she sports as the delightfully libidinous Samantha Jones in the new Sex and the City movie, Cattrall has a funny, touching scene where she reclines and dresses her toned curves as a sushi buffet for her boyfriend.

Along with the rest of the SATC cast, the Liverpool-born and Vancouver Island-raised Cattrall reprises her role from the HBO series in the movie, due out May 30. It's among the summer's most hotly anticipated flicks.

Cattrall, who met with the Star for a private chat before a series of round-table interviews with the media at a chic Manhattan hotel Sunday morning, had initially nixed signing on a Sex and the City movie. But she says contrary to rumours, it wasn't about the money, honey. "I never wanted to be paid what anybody else was being paid," Cattrall insists when asked if she was holding out for a Sarah Jessica Parker-sized payday. "I felt there were reasons to do the movie and I felt they were about a really great script, and they were about all of us being happy and all of us being put in a position where we could make this movie. I felt that the bar was so high when we left off, and to come back and do anything that would not be as good, would have been really tough."

Cattrall says she also balked at making a movie right away after the HBO series ended in 2004 because of pressures in her personal life. Back then, she was going through "a kind of a tough time," including a very public divorce from third husband Mark Levinson and her father's diagnosis with dementia.

"There were quite a few issues at play. I can only speak for myself, but I think we were all exhausted," says Cattrall. But on this day, blond and lightly tanned, wearing a sleeveless aqua Luca Luca dress with a plunging neckline, her fuchsia-painted toes peeking out of cobalt blue Jimmy Choo strappy sandals, Cattrall looks fresh and beautiful. She looks lovely onscreen, too, even dotted with sushi.

"If you're going to do these kind of scenes at a certain age, I felt very blessed that I had someone like (director of photography) John Thomas lighting me and (writer-director) Michael Patrick King setting up the shots, because whatever the angle was, I felt protected," Cattrall said of her nearly nude scene. "I felt my butt was covered."

Literally or figuratively? "Both!" Cattrall replies with a giggle.

Cattrall says it was "so easy" to get back into the Sex swing four years after Carrie Bradshaw and her trio of best gal pals ' Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha ' signed off the air. All of the original cast is back.

"It was like falling off a log. I thought this was going to be difficult, but I look back and we did this for six years of our lives, so these characters are at our fingertips," says Cattrall, who admits she was still nervous on the first day of shooting.

As proof their fans were more than ready for SATC to ramp up again, Cattrall says more than 300 people jammed a corner on Park Ave. for the first day of shooting: the opening scene where the four ebullient women reunite and stride down the sidewalk as if they own Manhattan. "There were so many people screaming our names, our characters' names," says Cattrall.

Much has changed in the lives of Carrie and company when the movie opens. Now into their 40s, the central theme of finding love in the city is still there, but friendships, loyalty and even forgiveness are also much on their minds.

Filming was done under almost lockdown conditions, Cattrall says, to keep the story a secret. Because fans and press followed the New York shoot, key scenes were filmed indoors (and there was at least one alternate ending, perhaps to act as a red herring).

Among the milestones the women mark onscreen, Samantha celebrates her 50th birthday, an event Cattrall celebrated in August 2006.

"About two or three months before (my birthday) I was thinking, 'Oh my goodness, this is happening to me. I'm on the other side!' And I woke up the next morning and I said, 'Hey! I did it! Nothing happened! I feel exactly the same!' "

As for her off-screen romantic life, Cattrall is still happily with her boyfriend of three years, Toronto personal chef Alan Wyse, 28.

"His family is all there and he's in Toronto. I have a production company in Toronto so I'm up there quite a bit, and I've been doing quite a bit of work there," she explains.

We get to see a softer side of Samantha on the big screen, but her passion for the pleasures of the flesh still burn white-hot. So how close is Cattrall to her onscreen alter ego? "I have an appetite, I don't think anyone is as voracious as that character," she says with a sly smile. "Maybe Aphrodite or Venus or somebody. But at the same time, I like to think that I have a strong sex drive; I'm a red-blooded North American."

As for what's next for Cattrall, there's already talk of an SATC sequel, but she has her sights set on more immediate plans.

There are rumours she may play an even more legendary femme fatale than Samantha onstage: Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra.

Is the sparkling coiled serpent ring she's wearing a clue? Cattrall's not saying. After all, one of the biggest contributors to sexiness is mystery.

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