Tom Clancy

Why does a man as smart as Newt Gingrich see nothing problematic in his $4-million book deal? Doesn't the House Speaker-to-be see the hypocrisy, questions of conflict of interest and damage to his credibility resulting from his cashing in on his powerful new position? Apparently, no. Gingrich, the self-proclaimed citizen-legislator, maintains his contract is a "normal book deal" that was an "arm's length transaction."

Tom Clancy is America's most wish-fulfilling policy-maker, and in his eighth spectacular and scary novel, "Debt of Honor," he plunges America into a foreign policy that is at once unthinkable and very thrilling--a campaign that the present State and Defense departments can only wish they had the talent to fight. Real war with Japan.

His bid for Patriot games fell short, but author Tom Clancy is still in the hunt for a blue-and-gold October--and September, November and December, for that matter. Had former New England Patriots owner James Orthwein not kept his promise to give local investors the first chance to buy his team, Clancy might not be pursuing the Rams today.

Although Tom Clancy seems to have found a nice home for his novels at Paramount Pictures--the studio has already turned two of his blockbusters, "The Hunt for Red October" and the recent "Patriot Games," into hit films and they're currently working on a third installment, "A Clear and Present Danger"--it's not necessarily a permanent residence. Sources say his latest book, "The Sum of All Fears," will most likely end up at Paramount, but the studio has other plans in case it doesn't.

With the $40-million film version of his novel "Patriot Games" scheduled for release in two weeks, author Tom Clancy announced Friday that he had resolved his differences with Paramount Pictures, ending months of bitterness in which he had criticized various aspects of the script and the production. "We've made a real peace and the credit goes to Brandon Tartikoff," Clancy said, referring to the chairman of Paramount Pictures. "The whole idea of the agreement with Mr.

The fact that Tom Clancy is not happy with how Paramount Pictures has adapted his bestselling "Patriot Games" to the screen has been public for months. Now it seems the studio is having its own doubts. The producers are bringing Harrison Ford, who stars as CIA agent Jack Ryan, back into town next week to do reshoots after test audiences complained about the film's ambiguous ending.

Novelist Tom Clancy and director John McTiernan are in the final stages of negotiations with Universal Pictures to make a movie based on the experiences of three U.S. Army captains who led an assault on Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard during the Persian Gulf War, it was learned Friday. The deal, which is expected to be completed early next week, calls for Clancy to write his first screenplay with the tentative title "73 Easting." The movie would be made with the cooperation of the U.S.

Harrison Ford took a deep breath and held it. And held it. And held it. He closed his eyes and sat back in a high-legged director's chair, seemingly oblivious to the sounds of crew members hammering and shouting instructions nearby as they prepared to shoot the climactic scenes of Paramount Pictures' "Patriot Games." As the seconds ticked by, Ford rocked slightly from side to side and then straightened up and looked down at his wristwatch. Forty seconds. Fifty seconds. One minute.