Star Views "Stepford "as Fun-House Mirror of Marriage

Matthew Broderick is not afraid to joke that art could be imitating life. In an interview room of a Manhattan hotel, he tells reporters that if anyone is looking for parallels between the two characters in The Stepford Wives--currently playing in Vancouver--and his own marriage to Sarah Jessica Parker, they can be found.

"Maybe there are [similarities] with the way we have been portrayed in the media," he says, "but I don't think Joanna and my wife are very similar, despite the fact that she [Parker] is extremely powerful and could destroy this hotel just by looking at it."

Of course, there are key differences between Kresby and Eberhart and Broderick and Parker. For one thing, Broderick is a star in New York thanks to his work in The Producers, one of the biggest hits in Broadway history. He will soon be appearing in a new filmed version, opposite Nicole Kidman, who plays Joanna in The Stepford Wives.

In that film, Kresby joins up with a group of geeks, all of whom are married to beautiful women who cater to their every whim. Broderick says that although The Stepford Wives is a comedy, there isn't a lot that's funny about a bunch of white men sitting around smoking cigars and hungering after power.

"It is very scary what happens when a lot of nerdy white guys get together," he says. "There can be terrifying results. Here, it is all comic, but we are reminded of groups of guys who came up with fascism, and a lot of bad things happened with guys getting together with cognacs and cigars."

As for his relationship with Parker, Broderick says that while she does share some attributes with the women in the film, he would never attempt a Stepford Wives ­style makeover. "She is old-fashioned in a way that she likes cooking and homemaking. But she is not very Stepford-like, and there is certainly nothing I would change about her."