The 1939 movie version of Claire Boothe Luce's play The Women is one of the true classics of modern cinema. Not surprisingly, there's been talk of a remake for years; after all, what actress wouldn't want to get her chops around that delicious dialogue? The problem was (apparently) that the studios thought that women as a group weren't significant enough to warrant an entire movie being directed at them.

That was New Line's reasoning in deep-sixing the idea a few years ago, at any rate. But things have changed. In this post-Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives world, women have finally been acknowledged and The Women is back on track.

That's the good news. The other good news is the cast: Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Uma Thurman and Sandra Bullock.

The not so good news is the probable fate of the words.

Apparently sit-com maven Diane English (Murphy Brown) has been working on a script since the last go-around (this time she'll be helming too). According to her, one of the reasons that The Women was difficult to update was that the women themselves were too much of their period and too dependent on men. (Yes, yes, I know...that was the point of the story, but bear with me here - it gets worse.) And, again, according to English, "The original was funny but it was very mean spirited." So she's softened it up. It sounds like the result will be a far cry from the biting satire of Luce and more like the softball comedy of Nora Ephron (expect lots of talk about favorite movies and a 70s soundtrack).

But you know, it's not like Rosalind Russell and her pals were really any good.