A look inside Hollywood and the movies : SO QUOTABLE : Brace, We’re Back in Britain Again

British director Ken Russell (“Tommy,” “Women In Love”) is as famous for his outspokenness as for his movies. And when he embarked on a series of press interviews to hype his new film, “Whore,” starring the unrelated Theresa Russell as a working prostitute, the part of him that spews forth outrageous quotes went into overdrive.

In the Guardian, the preferred daily reading among the British women’s movement, Russell said, “I think prostitutes are generally happy about being prostitutes.” He added, “It’s not a bad way to make a living.”

But Russell was only warming up. In the Independent on Sunday, he called Meryl Streep “an android.” Harrison Ford? “Just an extra with a big hat.” Richard Gere? He has “the smallest eyes in Hollywood.”

Russell on “Godfather III”: “The director has his daughter in it. What’s his name? Coppola, yeah. And she’s the ugliest girl you’ve ever seen--not her fault but she shouldn’t be exposed in close-ups.”

But the main target of Russell’s wrath currently is Richard Dreyfuss, star and producer of a movie for HBO called “Prisoners of Honor,” which Russell directed.

“When the star is the producer and more concerned with his hair than any other aspect of the story, you’re in trouble,” raged Russell. “In fact, the last day was spent shooting scenes where he felt his hair looked a bit thin so we had to rebuild sets and redo them.

“Then he felt he should have a close-up in a dueling scene so he shot it himself in America without telling me--the fact that there are two completely different actors playing seconds, and palm trees in the background, didn’t worry him.”

HBO, as Russell tells it, kept calling him to ask why there were no close-ups in his film. “But I knew if they had close-ups they could cut. I shot scenes in master shot and without any cutaways, so they’d get nothing to cut to.”

One day, according to Russell, a truck arrived and took his film away. “And Dreyfuss had the cheek to say: ‘I know you’re very good on music, so I’ll send the film back when I’ve cut it my way and you can supervise the music.’ That’s a bit like someone asking you to hold your sister down and spray her with perfume while he rapes her.”

An HBO spokesperson said that the company and producers Dreyfuss and Judith James “had a disagreement with Ken Russell. More work needed to be done and Dreyfuss-James is doing that work. When the film is ready, we will show it to Ken Russell.”

One recalls Dreyfuss’ wry acknowledgement of Russell’s stormy reputation at a press conference here before filming started. “You can divide the world’s actors into two categories,” he said. “Those who say ‘I don’t want to die without having worked with Ken Russell,’ and those who say they do. I’m in the former camp.” With hindsight, perhaps he wouldn’t be.