NEW YORK — All it took was a question about sex — and out came that famous Julia Roberts guffaw of a belly laugh, echoing around a Manhattan hotel suite overlooking Central Park.

The abruptness of the Oscar winner’s loud chortle Friday even made her ”Duplicity” co-star Clive Owen start a bit in his seat. But then, as the actor admitted later, it is Roberts’ ”brilliant sponteneity” that is one of the things he loves most about acting with her.

Oh yes, we should get back to that question about sex — actually sexiness.

Given she and Owen play lovers — and spies turned corporate espionage agents — in ”Duplicity,” it seemed logical to query what each found sexy in the opposite sex.

After letting out her big laugh (and showcasing Hollywood’s most celebrated smile), Roberts quipped, ”My husband hates it when I talk about him,” clearly indicating ”sexy” to her immediately translates into ”Danny Moder,” the father of her three children.

While Roberts deftly dodged chatter about her spouse and his well-known aversion to the spotlight, the actress did have a one-word definition for what she finds sexy in a man: ”vocabulary. … I am a sucker for really good vocabulary … and someone who can carry on a good conversation — about a lot of different topics.”

As for the spy role, Roberts said she was delighted to ”play one in the movies” but could never do it for real.

”I think I’d be a bad spy. I’m just too stupid,” quipped Roberts, meaning she didn’t have the kind of brain capable of keeping all the lies straight to be successful as a covert agent.

”It’s something we have in common,” said Owen, who has been in such spy thrillers as ”The International” and ”The Bourne Identity.”

”We’re just too open and honest … too much in the present to pull those things off for real. I don’t know how those people do it,” added the actor.

Roberts hasn’t been completely absent from the multiplexes in recent years, thanks to co-starring in ”Charlie Wilson’s War,” ”Closer” (with Owen), ”Mona Lisa Smile” and ”Ocean’s Twelve” and voicing the spider in ”Charlotte’s Web.” But ”Duplicity” marks the actress’ return to a leading role for the first time since ”The Mexican” and ”America’s Sweethearts” in 2001.

What was it that got her to jump back into the Hollywood mainstream?

”As they say, timing is everything. It all just worked perfectly,” said Roberts, who said she so loved ”being a mom and a wife, I really didn’t want to leave all that for the length of time you have to commit to playing a leading role in a film.”

But her twins have grown, and even young son Henry (who darted in and out of the ”Duplicity” interviews a few times Friday) is old enough for her to take along.

”But the main hook, I believe, was the fact we were filming a lot in New York [where Roberts maintains a home] for this one,” said ”Duplicity” writer and director Tony Gilroy.

For Roberts, ”as is always the case, it ultimately turns on the script.” When Owen said, ”This script had some of the best dialogue I’ve ever had the privilege of repeating in any film,” his-co-star nodded in vigorous agreement.

Along with playing a ”snappy sort of intelligent character, who also has an emotional life,” Roberts said she was fascinated to learn about corporate espionage.

”I laughed when I heard Tony tell us how they call it ‘competitive intelligence,’ ” she said. “Isn’t that a great way of disguising what it really is? Stealing your competitors’ ideas?”

Gilroy, who was drawn to the subject as a followup to his ”Michael Clayton,” said ”there isn’t anything in our movie that hasn’t happened for real.

”There is no shortage of people doing this, and there isn’t a major multi-national corporation anywhere that doesn’t have a large competitive intelligence department. It’s just a fact of life in today’s world.”

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