 According to screenwriter William Goldman (qv) in "Adventures in  Screen Writing" (Ch 6), The Stepford Wives was the only project he  has been involved with that he knew was doomed even before  production began. The original concept was that if men were going to  murder their wives and replace them with robots, the replacements  had better "be in the form of a Playboy Bunny". The concept was  tossed when director Bryan Forbes (qv) cast his wife  Nanette Newman (qv) in the film, as per contract. Newman was "an  English Actress in her mid