Stalking Michael Douglas

One in every 1,250 Americans is a stalker but one in every 166 Americans has been or is being stalked. I guess time and multiple-victim stalkers explain that discrepancy.

More than a million women but “only” 370,000 men are stalked each year in the U.S. I guess testosterone explains this one.

So why, over a period of seven years, was Michael Douglas stalked by three separate women?

Mike was the victim in Fatal Attraction (1987), Basic Instinct (1992), and Disclosure (1994).

How can women be stalkers?

Pennsylvania’s legal definition of stalking is “engaging in a course of conduct…under circumstances which demonstrate…an intent to place (another) person in reasonable fear of bodily injury, or an intent to cause substantial emotional distress to the person.” Notice that “person” is used rather than “a woman.”

Glenn Close, Sharon Stone, and Demi Moore, all women, certainly do those things, but, boy, what a way to go, say the men of the world.

According to a variety of websites, there are “intimate-partner stalkers” (Demi Moore), “delusional stalkers” (Sharon Stone), and “vengeful stalkers” (Glenn Close). Or maybe all three women are all three types.

Vengeful stalkers get really, really mad if they think they’ve been “slighted.” In director Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction, Douglas rather innocently gets sucked into a hot several-night stand with Close. On their last night together, they listen to “Madame Butterfly,” an opera they both like in which the soprano kills herself when her tenor sailor sails away. Close relates to the opera a little too much and slits her wrists. As a vengeful stalker she feels plenty slighted throughout the movie.

Eventually, after enduring a number of dastardly deeds, Mike tries unsuccessfully to get a restraining order against Close. A lot of gender bias existed in 1987, especially in the police picture of stalkers. Mike couldn’t have gotten an (anti) stalking order in Sisters at that time either. Oregon has issued them, for either sex, only since 1993.

Two other things about Fatal Attraction. First, be sure to watch the alternative endings on the DVD version. Both alternatives are infinitely better than the one Lyne finally attached and, thus, ruined the whole film.

Second, as a point of interest, the hugely popular Fatal Attraction was the first film released in South Korea after that country’s anti-foreign-distribution rules were lifted.

The local film directors were so mad that they told everyone there were snakes in the theater where the film was being shown. Koreans are supposed to be afraid of snakes. I don’t know how effective the snake campaign was but the new rules stuck.

I was in China just after most of that country’s movie fans had watched illegal videos of Basic Instinct (1992). All the guys talked about was Sharon Stone. Ten years before, no Chinese had heard of John Wayne. But then maybe the guys weren’t interested in the Duke.

Basic Instinct is a terrific film by a great director, Paul Verhoeven, who became famous for his Dutch film Soldier of Orange (1978) and, later, directed Total Recall (1990) and Robocop (1987).

You have to watch and listen carefully to Basic. Otherwise you won’t know that Stone’s character, a writer, began stalking Douglas’ persona, a detective, long before they meet. Again, this is a hot sex film (how does Douglas manage this?) with, of course, that unforgettable leg-crossing scene. Stone turns out to be a psycho of sorts, a really appealing sort.

Barry Levinson’s Disclosure (1994) has Douglas in the role of a nice family man, as in Fatal, but this time he doesn’t do anything wrong. His boss just turns out to be an old flame, an incredibly hot flame.

He doesn’t want to rekindle the fire. Thus, Demi Moore’s character falls into the “once-intimate-now-spurned” category.

Mike’s geeky character’s “no” is a little clumsy and Moore’s character is plenty vindictive so she accuses him of sexual harassment. He turns the tables and accuses her of sexual harassment. You have to watch the movie to see who wins.

These are not family films.

Michael Douglas is hunky Kirk Douglas’ son and, although plenty passable, I think less sexy. So why does he rate all these steamy encounters with hot women while his father had to make do with nuns in Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison, (1957)?