ENRIQUE Iglesias is on the phone from Paris. “Hellooo. Helloo,” a squeaky little voice chirrups.

Could this be the suave and sexy Latin balladeer whose sultry croonings and smoldering looks have him burning up the American charts and setting countless female hearts a-flutter?

The mystery man collapses into a fit of giggles. “You thought that was my real voice,” Iglesias crows delightedly before another gag occurs to him. “It is! I got castrated!”

But the 24-year-old’s reputation for playing the clown precedes him, and this potentially devastating news is defused by his track record as a prankster.

“I work so much that if I didn’t have a sense of humor I’d go nuts,” he explains later.

This strict work ethic, which he says he inherited from his famous father Julio, is paying off in spades.

The hunky heart-throb, who has sold more than 15 million Spanish-language records since his self-titled 1995 debut, cracked the English-speaking mainstream this summer with his No. 1 smash hit “Bailamos.” And this week’s release of his first English-language album, “Enrique,” is sure to have him challenging Ricky Martin’s mantle as the king of Latino pop.

Iglesias’ reckless sense of humor has been known to backfire, however.

After he was crowned “The Sexiest Man Alive” by “People en Espanol” last year, he playfully quipped to reporters that his record label had bought the title for him. Newspapers ran with the story and he was forced to hose down the scandal by saying he was kidding – he actually was the sexiest man in the world.

It’s an experience he remembers with a shudder, but he’s not about to stop.

His penchant for pranks also casts some doubt about the veracity of a comment he recently made to “TV Guide.” He told the magazine he was a virgin, adding: “But when you talk about it please don’t make fun.”

No one’s likely to be making fun of the kind of serious money Iglesias commands.

Reinforcing his status as the supernova among a stellar cast of crossover Latino artists, which also includes Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Universal Music has just signed Iglesias to a six-album recording deal worth a whopping $40 million, capping an intense bidding war between many of the industry’s biggest labels.

Iglesias, who will perform on NBC’s broadcast of “Christmas In Rockefeller Center” on Wednesday (Dec. 1), insists on remaining level-headed about his soaring popularity.

“I never daydreamed about the success,” he says. “I was so young when I started writing songs that what I daydreamed about was taking my music to a higher level. I just wanted to sing, get a record contract and have people listen to my music. I wanted to make music that I liked and was happy with.”

Iglesias was born in Madrid, Spain, the third of his Lothario dad’s five children. Julio divorced Enrique’s mother, Filipino-born model Isabel Preysler, when the boy was 3 and, four years later, he was sent to Miami to live with his grandmother.

Enrique was looked after by a nanny, Elvira Olivares, to whom he dedicated his first album.

Iglesias senior had achieved international superstardom by the time Enrique was born and his grueling schedule kept him on the road for the majority of his son’s childhood.

Much has been made about the emotional distance between the famous father and son and, particularly after Enrique beat Julio for the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance in 1997, there has been speculation that the competition has widened the rift.

Both have continually denied the existence of any animosity and Enrique stresses he has the utmost respect for his father’s work ethic and longevity within the industry.

“He’s such a hard-working man,” Enrique says. “He had a big influence on me work ethics-wise. He’s been around for so long and he just works so hard. I only hope I can have a 25-year career.”

During that time, Julio has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide, recording in seven languages. But his son is hot on his heels, with his albums now moving off the shelves faster than his father’s.

The son refuses to be drawn into speculation that Julio may soon become known as “Enrique Iglesias’ father.”

“I never looked at it that way, not at all,” he says. “I never talk about work with my family. I know people find it weird, but even growing up, I never talked about my music.

“Music was like therapy, my own little thing, and I’ve always kept it that way.”

Indeed, when the University of Miami business administration major was ready to launch his career at the age of 18, he refused to trade on his famous surname.

Without his father’s knowledge, he shopped around for a record contract under the name Enrique Martinez.

Three major labels turned him down before he signed with the Los-Angeles based independent Fonovisa.

Iglesias says his youth was a stumbling block. “Spanish singers at that point were all 40 years or older,” he says.

But Iglesias had grown up listening to Top 40 acts such as Bruce Springsteen, Foreigner, Peter Gabriel and Billy Joel and was convinced that his romantic, uncomplicated pop songs had a market.

They did.

His self-titled Spanish debut sold more than 6 million copies and the two follow-ups, “Vivir” (“To Live”) and “Cosas del Amor” (“Love Things”), each sold about 5 million units.

He’d racked up 11 No. 1 Latin singles and was already a household name in the Hispanic community by the time “Bailamos,” which was featured in the 1999 Will Smith film “Wild Wild West,” started to take the U.S. by storm, dominating mainstream radio over the summer.

His next single, “Rhythm Divine,” which was produced by the Groove Brothers, who worked on Cher’s smash hit “Believe,” is already in heavy rotation on U.S. radio.

Iglesias, who is effortlessly bilingual, insists he has not abandoned his Spanish roots, pointing out that there are three Spanish-language songs on “Enrique,” including a cover of Springsteen’s “Sad Eyes.”

“The first song I ever wrote was in English, when I was 13,” he says. “What I did in Spanish was very mainstream music and that’s what I wanted to do again, but in English. It’s the same thing, just a different language. It’s great to be successful in both languages.”

He denies his decision to record in English was influenced by the mega-success of the Latin crossover artists who preceded him.

“I’ve never done an album thinking, ‘Are people going to like it?’ he says. “If you do that, you go nuts. I worry first about what I like and if the audience likes it too, that’s a match made in heaven.”

With his keen sense of the ridiculous intact, Iglesias shuns the trappings of fame. He’s most comfortable in jeans and T-shirts and prefers to keep a relatively low-profile at home in Miami when he’s not touring or on the promotions trail.

“I don’t care for fame,” he says. “I saw it happen to my father, and it doesn’t really impress me. I know a lot of people get impressed but I grew up so used to it.

“As a little kid, you absorb so much and I could tell when people really loved my father and when they didn’t. If someone really loved him, they’d love his kids. Kids can tell these things – they’re very perceptive.

“I’m just determined to surround myself with good people who love me and believe in me.

“The things I care for are my music and my audience.”

He is equally dismissive of his sex symbol status.

“I was never a sex symbol in college – I was the opposite,” he says. “I was pretty much rejected by women in high school.

“But selling albums can make anyone beautiful. You always see artists with beautiful women, no matter how bad-looking they are.

“Having said that, I’d rather be considered the sexiest man in the world than the ugliest man in the world.”

Unlike his father, who scored his biggest hit with the Willie Nelson duet “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before,” Iglesias, who is single, says he’s no lady’s man.

“When it comes down to saying how I feel, I’m kind of shy,” he says. “I say stuff in my music that I would never say face-to-face.

“I’ve always been that way. I was shy as a little kid so I’d write songs – they were like my diary.”

So does it bother him when the squeals of female fans who flock to his concerts threaten to drown out the romantic messages in his songs?

“Not at all – the more fans the better,” he says. “You know when it’s going to bother me? When they don’t show up.”

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