NEW YORK -- Jessica Simpson, no longer a fresh newlywed but still in the prime of her physical charms and at the peak of celebrity, bounces into a Manhattan hotel room.

Men's jaws drop, women either grin or grimace: Simpson is that absurdly noticeable, that damned striking.

Simpson, 25, is wearing a scoop-necked, satin sun dress decorated with magenta flowers and green leaves. The perky little designer number looks one size too small, as though it were painted on, emphasizing every nuance of her petite yet curvaceous body. The overflowing bodice reminds one of two overgrown exotic fish trying to leap out of a small fishbowl.

Naturally, the issue of sex appeal is put on the table immediately. After all, Simpson is making her movie debut as Daisy Duke in the big-screen version of the good ole boys TV series, The Dukes Of Hazzard. And Daisy -- strutting through the Hazzard County redneck bar in her shortie shorts and surrounded by slack-jawed yokels who like fast cars and faster women -- is all about the tease.

"Whoa!" Simpson says with a smile when the question about Daisy's sex appeal is thrown at her by the Sun. "Really?"

This initial response makes you shudder. You wonder if she is just an empty vessel, a pretty thing with no brain who cannot complete a sentence. Wrong -- turns out she can think, can play the media game, can talk in whole paragraphs when the occasion demands it. She will not win any awards from most-modern feminists and it is a stretch to imagine her spouting chaos theory or indulging in quantum physics despite an IQ that reportedly ranges into the Mensa-level 160s, but she holds her own on music, her new movie career and the pressures of celebrity as the femme side of the MTV series Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica.

"She definitely knows how to make a man melt," Simpson finally says of Daisy, whose primary goal in The Dukes Of Hazzard is to get her cousins Luke and Bo Duke -- played by Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott -- out of trouble by manipulating other men with her wily charms.

On the TV series, Catherine Bach did her thing, usually in cheek-hugging shorts that eventually bore her character's name. In director Jay Chandrasekhar's movie, Simpson's Daisy does that by shaking a head of blond hair and wriggling about in either the shorts or a pink bikini that recalls the red one Bach wore in the first episode of the TV show.

"I went straight to the gym," Simpson says of her preparation, once she beat out the likes of fellow singer Britney Spears for the role. "I had to look good in the bikini."

Simpson knew what she was getting into. She watched the re-runs of the TV show and she vigorously campaigned to land the part as her big-screen debut.

"I always looked up to Daisy,' says Simpson, "and I always thought she was an amazing, strong, smart woman. And when I found out they were making the movie, it was a dream role for me because I thought: 'What a great transition in my career now -- starting an acting career.' I want people to know that I'm a strong woman, so I went out and I went after this role as hard I could -- and I got it."

Yet Abilene, Tex., native Simpson is the daughter of a Baptist preacher man, Joe Simpson. As much power as she has to melt men herself, Simpson says she does not flaunt it (and made virginity famous by keeping hers until her October 26, 2002, wedding night to fellow pop star Nick Lachey). "I'm definitely shy," she says. "I don't even walk around in my bathing suit at the beach. So I was definitely acting, for me to drop the coat (in a tease-seduction scene with Michael Weston as Deputy Enos) and be in a bikini to try to get my cousins out of trouble by using my body. That was acting."

In one scene, working opposite Joe Don Baker as the shady governor of Georgia, Simpson is left speechless when he flubs the take and confesses he cannot remember his lines because he's looking at her "titties" close up. "That was pretty shocking!" Simpson says. Yet she allowed Chandrasekhar to include the outtake as a bonus clip with the end credits. "I mean, I had to approve it. Jay called me up and said: 'Hey, can I put this in there?' (I said), 'Yeah, I don't care.' "

The funny-odd thing about Simpson's effect on men is that, like many bombshells, Simpson did not have supreme confidence in her body. Prior to shooting The Dukes Of Hazzard, she figured her butt was too small and too soft to play Daisy.

"When I found out I got the role, I went straight to the gym and I hired a trainer, a trainer who is one of my dear friends from high school. And he came out to Baton Rouge (the Louisiana city where much of rural Georgia was recreated for the movie) and I trained six days a week for two hours a day -- a lot of training. Heavy cardio. And I didn't have a butt so I had to do lots of squats. I had to do Daisy Duke proud! My butt jiggled. I wanted it to be firm!"

Her Newlyweds husband Lachey -- they are still together despite the incessant rumours that inevitably accompany a relationship developed on a reality TV freak show -- showed up in Baton Rouge for six weeks, too.

On that topic -- marriage and the legacy of Newlyweds -- Simpson says she has no issues. "Yeah, there's no regrets," she says. "I do NOT regret that and people have accepted me as a person and a lot of my fame has come from just who I am (as a singer). I wouldn't take it back and I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you guys if it wouldn't have happened."

While already a singer, her celebrity emerged directly from the Newlyweds phenomenon, which has been replenished with follow-up shows such as Nick & Jessica's Family Christmas and Nick & Jessica On Tour. In music, Simpson already has several albums out, including Sweet Kisses and In This Skin. Another album, tentatively and unwisely entitled And The Band Played On, is due in November.

"It is definitely different from the last Jessica Simpson records," she says. "This is the first one I've gotten to executive produce because I've basically said: 'I don't have to make a record. I want to do it because I want to make the kind of music I want to make and you've got to give me the reins!' "

With music becoming a secondary consideration, Simpson is focusing on a movie career. "Yes," she says about whetting her appetite on The Dukes Of Hazzard, "I was shocked at how relaxing shooting a movie was. It was so fun and, on the set, everybody was so carefree and so many relationships and friendships were created. And, when we left, it was like leaving summer camp.

"I was so sad when we left Baton Rouge, so I definitely want to get into doing more movies. And I'm more into the romantic comedies and comedies. I'm not really into the deep drama roles. I'm getting some really, really great scripts and I think my next project will be with the producer of The Dukes Of Hazzard, Bill Gerber, and it's called Major Movie Star and it's kind of like, not a re-make, but a lot like Private Benjamin."

Not surprisingly, Gerber has kind words for Simpson. He loves her sex appeal but says he cast her because of other qualities, too. "She understands that part of Daisy Duke's appeal is that she is very sexy but not slutty. And that was kind of one of the things that made me want to hire Jessica. She's really decent but super-sexy and that's an important quality for Daisy."

And for Simpson's future acting career -- no actress can prosper just on sex appeal, Gerber says.

"Clearly not. It backfires on you if you just play the sex card the whole time. But I don't think she ever would. I think she genuinely does the work to be an actress and she's a decent Christian girl. That's who she is and, when she talks about her love life in People, she really stands for those (values) despite what people say in the press. Her dad is a preacher. She believes in that wholeheartedly. I just don't see her going the easy route of just going for the sex."