LONDON, England?Would it have the same pulling power, I wonder, if it were titled ?Sex and Calbayog?? ?Sex and Laoag City??

Never you mind. It?s vacuous, frothy, frivolous and at times trivializing bubble gum for the mind, but how can you be negative about ?Sex and the City? when it has given millions of women the world over unbridled entertainment in borderline sluttishness, narcotizing amusement and romance?

The girls?still full of moxie, with their metaphorical sheer brass balls, heaving bosoms and industrial-strength mascaras?are back. The heels are higher, the fantabulously fortissimo clothes freshly pried from the runways, the dialogue as dirty as ever. And who cares whether or not Carrie marries Mr. Big?

It?s been four years since we last saw the girls in mercifully short bursts of half-hour episodes. The glossy Charlotte has adopted a Chinese baby; Miranda, the lawyer-mom, is still with her (cheating) boyfriend; the crypto-nymphomaniac PR gal Samantha has survived cancer and lives in LA; Carrie is writing her third novel and is with Mr. Big, their wedding date set. Instead of a diamond ring the size of a small African nation, she asks Mr. Big for bigger closets.

Judging by the number of forests that have been felled to provide acres of flattering coverage on this side of the pond, we have missed them and are happy to see them again?older, slightly weary around the edges, somewhat more jaded and cynical, but as gleaming, shiny and lustrous as ever, polished and buffed to within an inch of their lives.

Aside from ?Sex and the City? the movie, SATC addicts can also now OD on the entire DVD set of the wildly successful series, representing six years in the lives of four friends?all singletons who grapple with their careers, their head-spinningly hectic social lives, emotional arpeggios, minor and major amours, money, weight problems, issues of infertility, cancer, adoption, love and loss, in the harshest glare and gaze of one of the most exciting cities in the world.

Positive choice

This is the female epic of our time?of women enjoying their freedom and financial power, and using every wile and trick in the book to get what they want.

?It made being single a positive choice for successful women everywhere, who didn?t feel the need to cling on to an energy-zapping, soul-destroying relationship just to be normal,? said Sarah Ivens, a New York-based editor.

In real life, of course, it?s still, incontrovertibly, a man?s world, but SATC made being a single woman in possession of a well-paid career very fashionable indeed.

Money talks a good talk, and money on vertiginous Jimmy Choo heels walks into chichi hotels, bars and restaurants, takes charge and calls the shots. In the series, the girls shopped till they dropped, partied till they pooped, reeked of the night?s debauchery and made love, as Carrie said, like men?without guilt, with sheer abandon and unfettered pleasure, in sexy, dangerous liaisons.

?For the first time in Manhattan history, many women in their 30s and 40s have as much money and power as men, or, at least, enough to feel like they don?t need a man, except for sex,? said Candace Bushnell, whose semi-autobiographical column in The New York Observer inspired the series and her series alter ego, Carrie.

Celebrating men

Except that the girls do need men, and not just for sex. Apart from the wallet-scorching and achingly trendy clothes and shoes, men are all the girls ever really talk (and bitch) about. Older, younger, shaven, bedraggled, commitment-phobic, tall, short, rich, poor?whether the Candace Bushnells of the world like it or not, a woman?s best protection and helpmate in life is still a man.

The girls love and hate them; need and want them; pursue and spurn them. SATC shamelessly celebrates men?their looks, lingering scent, grooming habits, wardrobes, chat-up lines, prospects and, er, their equipment and staying power in the unarmed combat department.

?We brought sex into the living room,? said writer-producer Michael P. King. And much else besides.

For good or bad, into our living rooms came frank and formerly blush-inducing discussions and deconstruction about sexual fantasies, sexual practices and sex aids. We now know that sales of Jessica Rabbits shot up, as did the Manolos, Pradas and Louis Vuittons.

However, King said that, in the film, ?there?s still sex in people?s lives, but not as much random casual sex. If you?re still making the same mistakes at 42 as you were at 37, maybe you need to call someone.?

?Sex and the City? also shone a big, bright light on female solidarity: We are women, hear us roar! And on the special friendship between females, which is probably God?s way of apologizing for some of the relatives He landed us with.

Real, die-hard feminists say ?Sex and the City? never really ventured beyond the shallows and probably undid decades of feminism. Hooey!

This is entertainment, for young romantics as well as old cynics, and if ?Sex and the City? fails to raise a small chuckle or a knowing smile, you probably do need to talk to someone.