SUBMITTED BY Timbo

June 15, 2003 — New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently talked to Paul Rudnick, the screenwriter of the remake of "The Stepford Wives. Here's an excerpt:

"Nicole Kidman will take Katharine Ross's role of a woman who moves to an immaculate Connecticut suburb with her husband (Matthew Broderick). She and her new pal (Bette Midler) discover that the place is more wicked than wicker, and that the women walking around in ruffles are preternaturally unruffled (Faith Hill et al.).

"Christopher Walken is now the villainous town founder, so Nicole will need her wits about her to escape.

"Mr. Rudnick says the plot has only increased in resonance because men have grown even more anxious about gender issues and begrudge having their hegemony shredded by women, gays and minorities. "Straight white males act like the angry new endangered minority," he says. "Men only evolve with a gun at their head."

"Ms. Ross played an amateur photographer whose husband felt she neglected the home. Mr. Rudnick has ratcheted up Ms. Kidman's accomplishments, making her a network president, and her husband an underling and junior vice president.

"There's still social pressure ? everyone looking at a guy with a wife who makes more money, going, `He's the chick,' " the writer says."

Read the full article at the link below (registration required).