PUBLICITY PHOTO

Chelsea Handler says she’s done writing until she’s at least 70.

By John Katsilometes

Published Wednesday, May 26, 2010 | 3:16 p.m.

Updated Monday, May 31, 2010 | 12:01 p.m.

The phone rings at 6:45 a.m., which is a bad time because the call is supposed to come at 7 a.m. The cats are being tended to at the moment.

And Chelsea Handler hates cats.

“I have my dog with me now — Chunk — and I’m getting my hair and makeup done,” Handler says as she takes the returned call. “I don’t like cats. I didn’t like them a month ago. I don’t like them now. But Chunk has his own Twitter account.”

The host of the E! Entertainment comic talk show “Chelsea Lately” and author of The New York Times bestseller “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang,” Handler appears Saturday night at The Colosseum in Caesars Palace. A book signing is planned after the performance. The hair-and-makeup session was for Handler’s role as Mrs. Beck in the upcoming film “I Hop,” a hybrid live action-computer generated film to be released Easter weekend.

After the conversation about cats, I start:

“You’ve been at a lot of book-signing events and stand-up shows now and have had a chance to meet many of your fans in person. Are you getting a feel about who you appeal to exactly?”

“Oh yeah, a lot of women. A lot of girls. A lot of sluts. A lot of gay guys, a lot of guys forced to come to the show by their wives or girlfriends. A lot of mothers.”

“Sluts?”

“I’m big with sluts.”

“You told Jay Leno that on nights when you perform two shows, the first show is a sober show, but you’re usually drunk for the second. Is that right?”

“Yeah, I’ve done that. It’s not a habit, though. In Las Vegas, I’m just doing the one show, so people will get a good show. I’ll party afterward.”

“What’s planned?”

“I’m not sure. Me and a bunch of my friends might just hang out upstairs in our suite, hire a DJ. Jenny McCarthy will be there.”

“She was involved in some sort of random make-out episode when she was here last? Somehow she started making out with some random guy at a club. At the Palms, at The Playboy Club. (She tweeted about it on May 7).”

“I don’t think it was random, though.”

“Hmmm.”

“That’s all I’m saying.”

“You’ve played The Colosseum before, and it’s a pretty large showroom for a comic. Is it difficult to reach the back of the room, the balcony, in a place that seats 4,000?”

“To be honest, I don’t know one theater from the next. Sorry, Caesars.”

“We’ve got the sequel to ‘Sex and the City’ opening this weekend. You a fan?”

“I liked it as a TV show, but when they started making movies, it was, ‘Enough already.’ ”

“You could conceivably be the fifth character in the show, the lost member of the ‘Sex and the City’ group.”

“Yeah, but they’re too old to be still doing now what they were doing in their 30s. I wouldn’t fit in. I mean, when people are in their 20s and 30s, they’re struggling to a certain point. When I was in my 20s, I was waiting tables (Handler is 35). Me and my friends weren’t into the lifestyle these women were into, that’s for sure.”

“Las Vegas has been beat up quite a bit lately. Andy Rooney has said he’s happy that the gaming industry is suffering financially. The other night on Letterman, Russell Brand said the city is a ‘neon nightmare.’ What’s your opinion of the city?”

“I love Vegas. But I’m here for one or two nights, and then scram. But I do love it, yeah. It’s funny, Russell Brand is the voice of the Easter Bunny in this movie I’m working on.”

“Russell Brand is the bunny?”

“Yep. It’s different.”

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.