Call them sluts, tramps, sexually empowered, "in touch with themselves," or whatever your bedroom religion permits. Still, it can't be denied that the past decade has bred a new kind of television floozy, thanks in part to Sex and the City gently escorting us into the 2000's with its bold bedroom dialogue. After the jump, Movieline recalls the 8 best characters who overindulged in the boudoir.
Hank Moody, Californication
Played By: David Duchovny
A self-loathing writer, Hank isn't addicted to sex as much as he just loves women of all race, religion and creed, and though he's spent most of the series in a relationship with the mother (Natasha McElhone) of his adored daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin), he's still found the time to dabble on the side. Hank has some morals -- he won't sleep with an underage girl (as long as he knows that she's underage), he will punch out anyone harassing a woman in his company, and he will offer up his own body to a woman just so that she won't sleep with someone who doesn't appreciate her. That being said, his conquests do include a bikini-ed thief whose name he does not know, student/strippers, and the mothers of his daughter's friends (plus, he was once punched in the face during the act).
Samantha Jones, Sex and the City
Played By: Kim Cattrall
The most sexually active of New York City's most famous foursome, Samantha is a self-proclaimed "try-sexual" who will attempt anything at least once and pretty much has over the course of the show, which includes bedding a 72-year-old millionaire, sleeping with Charlotte's brother, going lesbian, and throwing her boyfriend a birthday ménage à trois. Samantha believes that she has had hundreds of "soul mates," coined the phrase "funky spunk" and is outspoken about the benefits of regular female masturbation. She is a loyal friend who shies away from committed relationships, and the only time Samantha ever lost her sex drive was during chemotherapy treatments -- even then, her libido returned in a throbbing way on the big screen.
Charlie Harper, Two and a Half Men
Played By: Charlie Sheen
Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre famously based boozing womanizer Charlie Harper on Charlie Sheen. himself The fictional Charlie relies on a steady stream of one-night stands, booty calls, and prostitutes to keep his bed warm. He's courted a few women longer than one night and even proposed to a few, but his narcissistic ways usually win out -- the Malibu bachelor even forced his sick brother Alan (Jon Cryer) to go on a date just so that he could use the house for revenge sex. Still, Fictional Charlie's promiscuous ways were explained away as a feeling of inadequacy, spurred when his mother told him that she thought he was going to be a girl since the sonogram showed no signs of a penis.
Kate Roberts DiMera, Days of Our Lives
Played By: Lauren Koslow (From 1993 - 1995, she was played by Deborah Adair)
If you're not familiar with soap operas, sit back and relax while your mind is blown by the romantic entanglements of Kate Roberts DiMera. A former high-priced call girl who was once believed to be dead for an entire year, Kate has been married four times, although one of her unions was deemed invalid when the ex, who was also believed to be dead, reappeared. (Luckily, he was later killed under mysterious circumstances.) Kate once paid an ex-porn star $5 million to marry one of her six children, and among her romances, Kate has dated a 25-year-old, an Italian mob boss (whom her son saw her having sex with), and a former pimp who she seduced for money. Also, Kate wears monogrammed bras.
Barney Stinson, How I Met Your Mother
Played By: Neil Patrick Harris
The most popular character on CBS's How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson is a witty womanizer with a comprehensive understanding of human behavior. What he lacks in morals, Barney makes up for with his Bro Code, an extensive set of rules for dating women (which became a New York Times best-selling book last year) including "waiting four days instead of three" to call a girl, a method Barney credits to Jesus. Barney has slept with over 200 women in his life, a goal that he set for himself in the seventh grade when a classmate claimed to have slept with 100. The series explains the origins of Barney's promiscuity via his loose mother and absent father whom he never knew (although Barney claims his true father is Bob Barker).
Edie Britt, Desperate Housewives
Played By: Nicollette Sheridan
Known as the slut of Wisteria Lane, Edie had relationships with nearly every one of her neighbor's ex-husbands during her five-season stay, including Gabrielle's ex Carlos (Ricardo Antonio Chavira) and Susan's exes Mike (James Denton) and Karl (Richard Burgi). Edie's dalliances with her friends' ex-husbands have led to a series of physical cat fights that landed her in the hospital and threatened to put her in jail, because in order to hold onto a man, Edie was not above revenge relationships, scantily-clad car washes, and staging fake pregnancies and suicides. In Season 5, it was hinted that Edie's promiscuity was born when her ex-husband Umberto revealed that he was gay. Feeling insecure about herself, Edie turned to the neighborhood handy man and began a sexual streak that would last until her untimely death by electrocution.
Jason Stackhouse, True Blood
Played By: Ryan Kwanten
Whether you call him the Bon Temps Man Slut, Born-Again Himbo or the more politically correct "Redneck Casanova," it's clear that Jason Stackhouse has more blood flowing through the lower half of his body than to his brain. When he isn't vehemently defending his sister Sookie, he can usually be found getting a sponge bath/hand job from a reverend's wife, hooking up with fangbangers, engaging in rough sex with gas station workers, or spouting off about his "gout of the d*ck."
Julie Cooper-Nichol, The O.C.
Played By: Melinda Clarke
The troubled mother of Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Julie Cooper had a reputation for sleeping with powerful older men to get what she wanted, then cheating on them with younger, poorer hunks. Bouncing between trailer parks and mansions depending on who she was dating, Julie once slept with her daughter's ex-boyfriend and wed her best friend's father just so that she could gain power within Newport. After Marissa died, Julie developed an addiction to painkillers and became engaged to a man while being pregnant with another man's child; in fact, during the show's four seasons, Julie racked up at least five ex-boyfriends, one ex-husband and two ex-fiancés.