Quick Cuts

GO, GIRL!

“Double Jeopardy,” the revenge thriller with a feminine twist, has held its own against such male-dominated fare as “Three Kings” and “Fight Club,” and even so-called chick flicks like “Random Hearts” and “The Story of Us.” Industry translation: Ashley Judd, who plays the wronged woman in pursuit of justice, has arrived. So what’s next for the Kentucky-raised Judd? “Eye of the Beholder” from Australian writer-director Stephan Elliott (‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”), another thriller, albeit one with a darkly comic twist. Judd plays a black-widow serial killer who is shadowed by a mysterious private detective played by Ewan McGregor. The film, which screened at the Venice Film Festival, has been picked up by Destination Films, which plans a mid-January release.

WHAT A RELIEF?

Ever since men’s undershirt sales plunged in 1934 when Clark Gable revealed a bare chest in “It Happened One Night,” corporate America has realized the enormous impact movies have on consumers and today goes to great lengths to strategically position their products in popular films. On the other hand, companies are squeamish about potentially negative perception.Take New Line Cinema’s just released “Body Shots,” whose working title was “Jello Shots,” afterthe potent, alcohol spiked cubes of gelatin consumed in large quantities by the two main characters, who are involved in an alleged date rape. General Foods Corp. wouldn’t stand for it and the title was changed. But do the Bayer people know in what context their antacid Alka-Seltzer is discussed? When one of the loutish male characters wants to have sex butdoesn’t have a condom, he excuses himself to the medicine cabinet and returns to the darkened bedroom with an Alka-Seltzer packet (which resembles a condom packet), rips it open and pretends he has donned a condom. AWAITING BAYER COMMENT. Gable may have forgone an undershirt, but we’re certain he would never have pulled a stunt like that.

CAT GOT YOUR LINE?

Once a rough cut of a movie comes together, it’s quite common for the director and producers to commission additional dialogue. Maybe a joke that looked funny on paper falls flat on film. Or maybe a scene cries out for a few off-the-cuff zingers. For the upcoming family film “Stuart Little,” a producer has confirmed some last-minute “punching up” of dialogue in the script credited to newcomer Gregory J. Brooker and “The Sixth Sense” writer-director M. Night Shyamalan. The situation? The cats don’t have enough jokes. It seems, Stuart the mouse is cute and he’s the star, but the feline contingent deserves more lines. . Those cats must have good agents.

Fizz Kids

Companies are frequently eager to strategically position their products in popular films, but they’re also squeamish about potentially negative associations--which have resulted in two New Line films undergoing title changes this year. (The first was “Dairy Queens,” which became “Drop Dead Gorgeous.”) The just-opened “Body Shots” was originally “Jello Shots,” so called for the alcohol-spiked gelatin cubes consumed in large quantities by two characters who are involved in an alleged date rape--and quickly vetoed by General Foods Corp. In the same film, however, one of the loutish male characters boasts that when he wants to have sex but doesn’t have a condom, he excuses himself to the medicine cabinet and returns to a darkened bedroom with an Alka-Seltzer packet (which he thinks resembles a condom packet), rips it open and pretends he has donned a condom. Representatives of Bayer, which makes the fizzy antacid, said they were unaware of the dishonorable mention.