NAME GAME: Dean Koontz, unhappy with the...

NAME GAME: Dean Koontz, unhappy with the violence in the upcoming movie version of his thriller “Hideaway,” should be more pleased with the movie to be made from his 1983 novel “Phantoms.” . . . The Newport Beach author is so upset about “Hideaway” he wants his name off the credits. But he’s just finished the “Phantoms” screenplay himself. Says Koontz: “It had to be condensed, but the texture and the intention of the book is all there.” He also gets to approve the director.

NEW DEMAND: A year ago, John M.W. Moorlach was best known as a Costa Mesa certified public accountant. Now, after his campaign warning that the county was heading for a bond crisis, Moorlach finds himself in demand as a public speaker. . . . His next audience: Members of the Jewish National Fund in Laguna Beach on Thursday night. Says Shelli Kwiat, spokeswoman for the group: “We always have a speaker on the latest breaking news in Orange County. And John Moorlach is the Man of the Year.”

NO REMBRANDT: Jochen Gerz, 54, whose work is at the Newport Harbor Art Museum through March 19 (F1), has been translator, journalist and salesman as well as artist. He never went to art school, though. . . . Says Gerz: “At that time, schools represented the power of tradition. The environment in which artists live changes tremendously.” Sometimes, “we think we are married to Rembrandt.”