The phrase "Cat Dancing" refers to the name of the first wife of the central character Jay (played by Burt Reynolds). Steven Spielberg and Brian G. Hutton both declined offers to direct this movie. John Wayne expressed an interest in the script, but MGM felt he was too expensive and too old. Sarah Miles' found her business manager/boyfriend David Whiting dead in her Gila Bend, Arizona, motel room during the film's location shooting. The death made headlines around the world. "Time Magazine" on March 26, 1973 reported, "Pills and bottles were scattered around his body, and bruises and a bloody cut were found on his head". The night prior to the discovery of his body Whiting had allegedly assaulted Miles after she had come back late at night from a birthday party for Burt Reynolds. Reynolds let Miles stay in his room for protection. She testified that Whiting had "got ahold of me and began throwing me about the room". Reynolds, when he saw Miles after her nanny, who had overheard the confrontation, had called him, was quoted as saying, "Christ Almighty, you're a mess!" Miles' injuries allegedly included a bloody nose, a bruised forehead and a cut lip. The official cause of Whiting's death as ruled by the coroner/county medical examiner was suicide by overdose of the drugs Methaqualone, Benadryl and a Librium-type drug. Reportedly, Miles and Reynolds did not wish to testify at the inquest one month after the incident but were forced to when Whiting's mother, Mrs. Louise Campbell, successfully obtained a court order compelling them to testify. According to the "Time" article, " . . . a pharmacologist hired by Whiting's mother said that the amount of methaqualone in Whiting's bloodstream need not have been fatal. Left unexplained was how Whiting's blood came to be on a pillowcase, towel, tissues and the washbasin in his own room, as well as on a blue sweater he had apparently been wearing. Also unaccounted for were the severe cut on the back of his head and scratches on his stomach, chest and knuckles." It was later revealed that Miles and Whiting had been having an affair, and this, together with the resulting publicity, contributed to the disintegration of her marriage to Robert Bolt.