HER PLACE IS IN THE KITCHEN

When it comes to films, best-actor Oscar nominee (for “Salvador”) James Woods is no stranger to violence, as witness “The Onion Field,” “Videodrome,” “Once Upon a Time in America.” But now we’re talkin’ new levels of gruesome, at least judging by a January-dated draft we saw of “Blood on the Moon,” now shooting around L.A.

The script has one scene with a woman’s head bobbing in a swimming pool. But no big deal. Later, Detective Woods finds girlfriend Joanie dead, her body nude, handcuffed and “carved up,” frying on a stove, with all four burners going and . . . well, this isn’t your best Sunday morning reading with your bagels and cream cheese.

Attached to the corpse is a note: “Dinner’s ready.”

The novel (by James Ellroy) and movie is a psychological thriller about a serial killer who brutally murders feminists--and the chauvinist cop (Woods) who becomes sensitized to women’s issues while tracking him down.

Could writer-director-producer James B. Harris be trying to have it both ways--exploiting a feminist angle while giving us more gross violence against women?

Harris was cagey: “We don’t intend to exploit, or be gratuitous with violence or sex. There will be a certain amount of grit, or criminal life, but within good taste.”

That was about all he’d say. Woods’ publicist was upset that we’d even raise such questions.

Her client, by the way, co-produces.