I Led 3 Wives

Steve Martin, who’s fond of altering his appearance (“Roxanne,” “Little Shop of Horrors”), will have “a whole different look” as an Italian-American mobster for this summer’s “My Blue Heaven,” promises Warner Bros. production chief Mark Canton.

“He (Martin) has this amazing black hair that goes straight up in the air, sort of like Pete Rose, only worse,” adds writer and executive producer Nora Ephron. Plus “shiny maroon suits.”

The comedy, from director Herb Ross, has Martin as a mid-level urban gangster in the federal witness-protection program, relocated to a bucolic California suburb, where he starts a crime wave “because it’s the only thing he’s been trained to do,” says Ephron. Rick Moranis is a beleaguered FBI agent who tries to control him and Joan Cusack a frustrated local D.A. unable to prosecute him.

Carol Kane and Melanie Mayron are also in the cast--Martin’s character reportedly has three wives.

Martin originally wanted to play the smaller role of the FBI agent, Ephron recalls. The studio offered the mobster role to Danny DeVito, who turned it down, and to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who never responded, Ephron says.

She then suggested Martin play the hood, and now insists, “He’s very funny.”