THE GOODBYE GIRL

One of the first movies you produced, with Stanley Jaffe, was "Fatal Attraction."

I was obsessed with the Glenn Close character. It's wonderful when she says, "I won't be ignored, Dan." I wanted to have T shirts made. [Laughs] At the time I was a single woman, and I had seen my girlfriends--and, I have to admit, myself--go out with guys who then wouldn't call them back, and it was like the guy left and took the woman's self-esteem with him. I wanted to do a movie about that. Every studio turned it down. Twice.

Why?

They all were men running the studios. One threw the script in my face and said, "How can you ask me to make a movie about a guy who cheats for no reason? I'd never do anything like that." [Laughs]

Not everyone loved Glenn Close's character. How did you deal with the backlash that accused the film, and you, of being antifeminist?

It was devastating to me. Devastating. I actually called Betty Friedan and asked her to explain it to me. She said, "Don't you understand that this is how people are going to see career women?" I said, "I hear you, but I don't think so." I, of all people, would never do something antifeminist.