FaSt Chat ffnxad&ffie ffirnskffihetrE HEN you think of nouelist and former "Ser and the City" colum- nist Candace Bushnell - the prototype for Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) on HBO's "Sex and the City" - three words corne to mind: Tall. Blond. Attrac- tive. Yet, sit and chat with her a while and you'll find yourself adding one rnore: Goofy - which we mean in the nicest way. Not at all the ice prin- cess of her author photo for"4 Blondes," her cur' 'rent bestseller, Bushnell is way too chatty and blithe for this to be an act. Sure, 'she's sheathed in a Prada chiffon dress and match- ing shoes for a talk with freelance writer Frank Louece at a half-hidden perty space in Chelsea, but that's because she's just been interuiewed for a British documentary abqut "Ab solutely F ab u- lous," the British comedy about two fast women. Raised in Glastonbury, Conn., on a three'acre estate with two sisters and three horses, Bushnell, 42, briefly attended Rice Uni- uersity in Houston, where she met photographer-di- rector Gordon Parks ("Shaft"). She joined him in New York to pursue acting and, wound' up writing for such maga- zines as Vogue and Self. - Freelancing for The New York Obseruer led to her column there about the mating rituals of rich Manhattan writing a nouel about Janey Wil- cox, one of the *4 Blondes," Bushnell is herself one blonde being diSitaUy inserted, "Forrest Gump"-like, into scenes u' riiiiii ' ..series "thirty- something." The shits serue as introductions to Brauo's rerunning of the 1987-91 ABC series, beginning Monday. llow does sex and the Gity compate with sex and the suburbs? You know (laughing), I'm alwaYs so aflaid ofsex in the suburbs. In the book "Sex and the City," there are two chapters where the girls go to the suburbs, and what I found out was in the suburbs, all these people are mar- ried and having affairs! In New York, everybody's single, so if they're having affairs or sleeping with each other, it doesn't really matter. But I am so uf"uia of tft" kind of place where peopl'e meet on the train, then they get offthe train in Greenwich or the Five Towns or whatever, go someplace and have a drink, and then go and have sex in a car or something. And then theY go home to their families! I find that shocking! (She laughs again.) One ol the things guys say about "Sex and the Gity" is: Here are these attractive' intelligent, plofessional women who moan There's that ilch Part again! If you're a great guy without a lot of money, women will deal with You. There are rich jerks who always man- age to find women - I mean, there are. But women usually figure it out pretty quickly, and then they make fun of him in the ladies' room. The truth is, women want a guY who'll make a commitment. Whether or not you have money doesn't have anything to do with the fact of making a commitment or not. I think the women in this city are so patient with men. They'll go out with then for a couple ofyears, they'll decorate their apartments, pick up their dry cleaning, thev're so kind and so nice to them lher voice rises], and they'll think the guy really loves them, and then this guy just turns around and it's lmale voicel, "Ooh, I don't want to get rnar- ried." [Angrily] Well, the guy would've been lucky that that girl was even talking to himl lSofter] But men don't get that. r and groan how theY can't attract men lol meaningful relationship$. But what theY mean is theY can't attlact rict men. No. Guys always say that. But the realitY is dating has gotten worse in the.city. I've gone to oarties filled with blond iuo*"tt - they're all 6 feet tall now - with incredible bodies, the/re really nice, and I'll talk to them and say, "Oh, gosh, you guys must have so many dates." And they'll just look at me, and they're like, "We haven't had a date for a year!" I don't understand it. In every city I went to when I was on my book tour, I was like, tOK, this must be the city where single girls can go and frnd a husband if they wanted one." Then I would talk to the single women, and they would say the same thing: There €rre no men here. There ate no Mr. Blgs there. Wellll. No. Maybe.I don't know. This English friend of mine came to New York, since he was told there was this big man shortage, so he would have all.these dates. And he went back to England and wrote, "There isn't a shortage of men in New York. There's a shortage oftall, rich men with all their hair." That's all I'm saying. But some of the sexiest men in town are short and rich and bald. media types. Currently