ON THE MOVE

Is Jay Leno going star on us? Reports from the Detroit set of DEG’s “Collision Course”--an action-comedy starring Leno as a Detroit cop teamed with Japanese sleuth Pat Morita--have the comic sandwiching in personal appearances around the country, sometimes by studio-provided plane, and playing havoc with the film’s shooting schedule.

“Cheap gossip,” said Leno’s manager, Jerry Kushnick, who gave this account: When rehearsals began in April, concert conflicts were discussed with director John Guillerman and producer Howard W. Koch Sr. Leno’s April-May bookings were rescheduled. But the project was pushed back four weeks when Guillerman left the project prior to filming, to be replaced by Bob Clark.

The producers guaranteed that the delay wouldn’t effect Leno’s concerts. Then Clark left a week into the shoot, to be replaced by Lewis League--with a further two-week postponement. In May, the comic did two one-nighters that couldn’t be rescheduled, including an NBC affiliates meeting in Atlanta.

The production did fly Leno to a three-day engagement in Atlantic City, said Kushnick, then winged him back to Detroit locations for Saturday filming--and back to Atlantic City for his evening show. He returned to the set Monday morning on his own hook. Kushnick emphasized that Leno did exactly 10 engagements during the shoot, but “not a single day’s filming was delayed or interrupted.”

“Collision Course” finally wrapped--and Leno was off to Denver the next night for a live show. Whew.