January 27, 2003-

It’s official. Hell has frozen over. It must have. Because Christina Aguilera is part of a trend that doesn’t make us want to gag. Thanks in part to “Moulin Rouge!” and the “Lady Marmalade” video starring Christina and her corseted cohorts, ’20s - and ’30s-style burlesque is hot again. (Not too hot. Most of these strippers stop at PG-13 pasties and panties.)

LONG POPULAR IN New York and L.A., now there’re troupes in most cities, from Denver’s “Burlesque as It Was” to New Orleans’s “Shim Sham Revue.” There’s even a burlesque aerobics class taught by the World Famous Pontani Sisters at New York City’s Crunch gym (pontanisisters.com). To help you get in on the trend, exoticworldusa.org lists performers nationwide. For top acts, try the Pussycat Dolls with Carmen Electra—burlesque meets “Baywatch”!—or Dita Von Teese (dita.net). “They used to laugh at me in fetish clubs,” says the reigning queen of burlesque. “Now the bondage girls do fan dances.” Too fringe for you? Tickets are on sale now for the Broadway revival of “Gypsy.” And in the post-Giuliani Times Square, you know it’ll be tame.