Feminist Movement

After treating filmgoers to lap dancers in Showgirls and Sharon Stone's nether regions in Basic Instinct, what do you think director Paul Verhoeven wants to take on next? Women's rights, of course. More specifically, Other Powers, a biopic of early suffragette leader Victoria Woodhull, who in 1872 became the first woman to run for president. ''I think it's absolutely fascinating,'' says Verhoeven, who's basing the project on Barbara Goldsmith's 1998 biography, ''even if it takes place in the late 19th century.'' But don't expect a prudish period piece à la Merchant Ivory. Verhoeven is quick to note that Woodhull worked briefly as a prostitute and became embroiled in an adultery scandal involving a prominent clergyman — ''not dissimilar from what happened to Clinton,'' he says. Verhoeven's first choice to star: leggy Australian Nicole Kidman. After all, hubby Tom Cruise is attached to produce. With names like these, it may just have more bump and grind at the box office than Showgirls.