Not once did the names Cameron Diaz, Lance Bass or Janet Jackson come up in an interview with Justin Timberlake.

The two dozen or so interrogators - representing publications from the Washington Post to gay NYC weekly HX - didn’t bring up any of those celebs in a 50-minute telephone session with Timberlake. His girlfriend, his recent "I’m gay" colleague in ’N Sync and his Super Bowl wardrobe-malfunction partner weren’t off-limits, but, let’s be honest, they’re as much old news as Britney Spears.

What’s new: Timberlake is looking sexy at No. 1 with the single "SexyBack" and his just-released second solo CD, "FutureSex/Love Sounds."

Naturally, the topic turned to sex. Well, the notion of sexy. Why is the 25-year-old superstar feeling sexy?

"Why not? It worked for ’Sex and the City,’" he said. "It really isn’t something that was more or less conscious."

He did coin the phrase "bringing sexy back" for the first single.

"It was the first line that I came up with on the song," he explained. "We weren’t originally going to call it ’SexyBack.’ I definitely didn’t think it would become the most worn-out phrase of 2006. It just sounded like a nice opening to the song."

It’s hard to argue with a No. 1 smash, but did "sexy" ever really go out of style?

"I think sexy just sort of changes," said Timberlake, who used the word "sexy" in two song titles and "love" in three others. "Everybody’s got a different idea of what sexy is, but I don’t think sexy ever left. I thought we were bringing fun back to music."

Timberlake is no Dr. Ruth or Mr. Fun. And he’s certainly no Prince, though on this CD he borrows sonically and psychically from the Minnesota icon’s early ’80s sex-obsessed vibe.

"He’s definitely a huge influence," Timberlake said. "Prince, to me, is the ultimate artist. The thing that I love about Prince is he really makes his own rules, and I think that in creating something like music, you really shouldn’t have any rules."

Timberlake admits that when he and Timbaland, who produced 10 of the 12 tracks on the new CD, would listen to songs they recorded, one or the other would remark how it reminded him of this song or that tune. "Coincidentally," Timberlake said, "a lot of the songs were Prince cuts from the ’80s."

Despite the obvious influence, Timbaland was the main man on "FutureSex/LoveSounds." He had worked on four tracks, including the hit "Cry Me a River," on Timberlake’s 2002 blockbuster, "Justified." One of the most successful producers in the R&B and hip-hop scenes, the Virginia Beach, Va., resident is known for creating hits for Missy Elliott, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, Ludacris and, most recently, Nelly Furtado.

Timberlake said Timbaland works differently from the Neptunes, who produced most of "Justified," or Rick Rubin, who did the closing ballad on "Future Sex/LoveSounds."

"’Timbaland’s extremely good at putting beats together, especially beats that you wouldn’t put together, kind of abstract beats that all of a sudden start to make sense," Timberlake said.

For instance, "My Love," featuring rapper T.I., is "a contradiction of sounds," the singer said. "You’ve got this operatic thing going on. If you take all the staccato sounds out, the essence of the song is it’s a ballad, but the way the beat is inlaid underneath the vocals, it becomes a percussive ballad."

Timberlake is doing a little producing himself and writing for a solo album by JC Chasez, his former mate in `N Sync. Don’t, however, view their collaboration as a step toward the next `N Sync project. Timberlake says a reunion is unlikely "until we can find out what would work for us because what we did doesn’t work anymore. As of right now, I don’t see it in the near future. I’ll continue to work with them in different ways. I think it’s kind of hard to make something work that was kind of a moment in time, especially when you’re all such different people now."

Having made his acting debut last year in the straight-to-video "Edison Force" (with Morgan Freeman), Timberlake has three small-budget movies slated for release in 2007: "Black Snake Moan," "Southland Tales" and "Alpha Dog" (with Bruce Willis). His motivation is simple: "I don’t have any aspirations to be a movie star; I just really wanted the experience of doing some genuine acting in film."

Closer to his heart is a North American concert tour he plans to launch in January. Having played a few club dates already, he declined to go into details about the arena tour except to say that his people are negotiating with another act to join him. The break-the-rules choices would be either Janet Jackson or Prince. But don’t bet on either, because they were sexy before bringing sexy back was cool.