BREAKING RANKS

In “A Soldier’s Story,” actor Dennis Lipscomb modeled his spit-and-polish Army captain after a real-life officer--his father, a retired Army brigadier general.

When Lipscomb recently landed the role of an Air Force colonel in “Amazing Grace and Chuck,” the new Jamie Lee Curtis movie to film in Montana in July, he reluctantly phoned his dad in Florida. He knew the old West Point grad wouldn’t be thrilled about his son wearing an Air Force uniform.

“Dad doesn’t like flyboys,” Lipscomb said, “but that’s not what upset him. He reminded me that he needed 15 years to make colonel--and I did it in only two.”