Buzz of troubles on the set of this satire about men who turn their wives into fembots can't compare to the mess onscreen. The 1975 film version of Ira Levin's novel caught the shock and awe of nascent feminism. It was funny and scary. The new version, directed by Frank Oz (In and Out), is terror— and clever-free. Paul Rudnick's script, a series of campy one-liners, overwhelms a plot about a husband (Matthew Broderick) who moves his TV-exec wife (Nicole Kidman) to Stepford, Connecticut, where wives are transformed from "castrating career bitches" into sex kittens, under the tutelage of Christopher Walken and his deranged spouse (Glenn Close). Close gets laughs, as does Bette Midler as a Jewish rebel. But the sting is gone.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."