UNLOVING COUPLES

What on Earth will the boob tube do with a self-help book on misogyny called “Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them” by Dr. Susan Forward and Joan Torres?

The producers (Marian Rees Assoc. and Group W Productions) will fictionalize it, creating composite characters from all the case histories (“a couple in the throes of conflicts that they don’t understand”). And they’re definitely considering a name change.

“It (the title) does have a negative ring to it,” conceded associate . producer Anne Hopkins. “It suggests alienation. And that’s not how we interpret the book.”

Agent Ken Sherman--who sold the book last week during its eighth week atop the New York Times best-seller list--said he wasn’t surprised by the sale because the book “talks about subjects (such as all kinds of physical and mental abuse) that we’re not supposed to talk about, but that we need to talk about.”

“We don’t see it as an angry, hostile book,” added Hopkins. “To us, it sheds information on feelings--men’s feelings about women, and women’s about men’s. It explores why women take the abuse that they do.”