On View : Who Lit the Krantzes’ ‘Torch’? : NOVELIST AND HUSBAND SAY LIZ TAYLOR NOT; MOVIE IS JUST A HOLLYWOOD COMPOSITE

Novelist Judith Krantz and her husband, producer Steve Krantz, insist their latest television collaboration, “Judith Krantz’s ‘Torch Song,’ ” isn’t about Elizabeth Taylor and her construction worker hubby Larry Fortensky.

But there’s no denying that on the surface “Torch Song,” which airs Sunday on ABC, seems like nothing more than a thinly disguised account of Liz and Larry’s road to romance: Paula Eastman (Raquel Welch), a much-married famous actress with a drinking problem, falls in love with Mike (Jack Scalia), the blue-collar hunk she meets while drying out at a rehab center.

Steve Krantz acknowledges “there are certain similarities” between the two, but quickly adds that the hero of “Torch Song” is a fireman. “Larry Fortensky is not a fireman,” he says. “Not yet anyway.”

Besides, say the Krantzes, Elizabeth Taylor isn’t the only actress with an alcohol addiction. After living 22 years in Hollywood, they say they know many performers who have gone to rehab for treatment of alcoholism.

Judith Krantz, who has penned such blockbuster novels about the rich and famous as “Scruples,” “Princess Daisy” and “I’ll Take Manhattan,” says she got her inspiration for the movie after reading an article in Cosmopolitan last year.

“I hate to admit this because I am beyond the age one should be reading Cosmopolitan, but I always read Cosmo every month because I worked for them for nine years,” Krantz says. “They had this wonderful article on, ‘Don’t overlook the blue-collar lover.’ It was all about how white-collar women have this great pool of blue-collar men they are overlooking because of snobbery.”

A blue-collar lover, Krantz says, is “in some ways less neurotic. He has a better outlook. He is a more real guy.”

“I am going to take to climbing telephone polls to increase my appeal,” quips her husband.

Krantz says she didn’t know what to do with the blue-collar idea, so she filed it away in her mind as a potential secondary character in a novel. When she began working out the plot for “Torch Song,” she immediately thought her blue-collar guy would be the perfect love interest.

“I felt this was something that would appeal to a lot of women,” Krantz says. “There’s something that immediately happens when you put a blue-collar man with a woman who is rich and famous. There’s the whole problem of how do they work out this discrepancy in their status? That gives you instantaneous dramatic material. They don’t have an artificial problem because they have a built-in problem. There is nothing like built-in problems to give you good drama.”

Not only does Paula have a built-in problem with her relationship with Mike, she also has problems with her rebellious teen-age daughter and a manipulative assistant who wants Paula to remain an alcoholic so she can have more control over Paula’s life.

“The whole ambience of the piece is nothing like Elizabeth Taylor,” says Welch, who came to international fame in 1966’s “Fantastic Voyage.”

Welch, the mother of grown children, Tahnee and Damon, says every parent can relate to Paula’s stormy relationship with her daughter.

“That’s a universal thing, isn’t it?,” she says. “A lot of people who are major stars have had terrible problems with their children, much worse than the average person. It is such a difficult role model to live up to or live down. The children never feel important enough when they are around somebody who is getting so much attention.”

Though “Torch Song” is escapist romantic fare, Welch believes the film successfully illustrates the less glamorous side of being in the limelight.

“There might be a certain amount of misconception on the part of the public that because someone is wealthy and famous and has stardom, they don’t have any real problems behind closed doors with their personal lives,” Welch says. “I think it is always interesting that there is a human side that isn’t bulletproof underneath the glamour.”

It was important for Welch that Paula have a sense of humor about her life. “That’s why I liked playing her,” she says. “For the most part, even though she was kind of somebody who had difficulties, she didn’t totally lose her sense of humor about it. That was a nice happy medium for me. I enjoyed playing Paula very much, and I didn’t have to do research.”

The Krantzes are extremely pleased at how well their “Torch Song” has turned out. “At the risk of sounding self-congratulatory, it is terrific,” says Steve Krantz. “It is an awful lot of fun.”

“There’s a real chemistry between the two of them and it is very sexy, really very sexy stuff,” Krantz says. “The love scenes between Jack and Raquel are very, very impressive.”

And the couple hope the movie will do well enough to spawn “Torch Song II.”

“I believe there will be more than one of these shows,” Steve Krantz says. “ABC is talking about it now and that is even before it goes on the air. I think there is every possibility that it will happen.”

“Judith Krantz’s ‘Torch Song’ ” airs Sunday at 9 p.m. on ABC.