NO TENDER NESS

For those critics and moviegoers who’ve complained that Eliot Ness, as played by Kevin Costner in “The Untouchables,” is wimpy, fear not: Lorimar has optioned “The Dark City,” a mystery novel featuring a harder-edged Ness.

This Ness is anything but the complacent family man. The novel catches Ness splitting up with his first wife and starting an affair with his secretary. Wife No. 2--not the secretary--will be introduced in the next installment. (The real Ness was married three times.)

The novel’s the first in a new series of “Eliot Ness Mysteries” from Bantam Books, just now on the shelves. Written by Max Allan Collins, it will follow Ness’ exploits as a crime buster in Cleveland, circa 1935.

And--hard to believe--Bantam sr. editor Coleen O’Shea told us it’s pure coincidence the book’s come out in tandem with the film: “The author and I cooked up the idea for the series long before there was any publicity about the movie. And it’s not intended to be related to the movie at all.”

Lorimar reports it’s too soon to know what they might do--TV or film--with the rights.