IT HAPPENS : Cop Tips Waitress, Inspires Movie, Gets Retitled

TriStar Pictures has decided to scrap one of the more unusual titles of the summer movie season. A July 8 release that used to be known as “Cop Tips Waitress $2 Million” or some variation thereof, is now expected to be called “It Could Happen to You.”

Before announcing the change, however, the studio needs to secure official permission from 20th Century Fox to use the new name, also the title of a little-remembered 1939 mystery featuring Stuart Erwin as an advertising executive who discovers a body in his car. (And yes, “Jeopardy!” fans, we know that the title of Jack Lemmon’s first film was “It Should Happen to You.”)

A Fox representative said such permission is routinely granted, especially when the earlier film is obscure.

In the TriStar film, directed and co-produced by Andrew Bergman (“Honeymoon in Vegas”), Nicolas Cage plays a married New York City police officer who, finding himself without enough money to tip his waitress (Bridget Fonda), tears up a lottery ticket and gives her half. Rosie Perez portrays the cop’s wife.

According to the studio, the plot is based on an actual news event that inspired a tabloid newspaper headline similar to the movie’s earlier title. But after initial screenings, studio executives, Bergman and his producing partner, Mike Lobell, decided that “Cop Tips Waitress” did not accurately reflect the picture’s tone.

“This is a very charming, warm romantic comedy,” said studio spokesman Ed Russell, “and we think ‘It Could Happen to You’ connotes that feeling better.”