Creditstoppers

What’s behind that unusual “special consultant” credit for screenwriter Bo Goldman at the end of “Dick Tracy”?

We’re told that producer-director-star Warren Beatty tacked it on after a Writers Guild arbitration decided against giving Beatty and Goldman credit for their work on the script. The team of Jim Cash and Jack Epps (“Top Gun”) are listed as sole screenwriters--and now there’s buzz that they’re upset about the special nod to Bo.

Cash, reached at his East Lansing, Mich., home, says he’s not terribly concerned, but adds, “I think there’s this implication . . . that Bo Goldman wrote the picture. The facts are that we wrote the (original) script in 1982 and the (final) script is our story. There may be some new dialogue, some scenes shifted around, but it’s what we wrote. He didn’t. The Writers Guild made the final judgment.”

Cash, who calls Goldman “a terrific writer,” points out that “Dick Tracy” also passed through three other directors--Walter Hill, John Landis, Richard Benjamin--and other writers. “I think they all had an impact along the way, (including) Bo.”

The “main issue,” Cash adds, is that “with all the people involved, the picture looks great on screen, and Warren did a great job. I’m thrilled with it.”