'Law' Makers

Judge Dredd's ''I am the law'' may be the catchphrase of the summer — at least on screen. Though it's not unusual for snippets of Sylvester Stallone's marble-mouthed dialogue to become pop-culture refrains (as with ''You're the disease, I'm the cure''), how in the world did the law line end up on the lips of British thespian Ben Cross in First Knight? ''It's horrible to put anybody down,'' says Dredd director Danny Cannon, ''but they were shooting down the street from us.'' Surely he jousts. First Knight director Jerry Zucker, whose 1980 Airplane! itself created everlasting phrases, claims no prior knowledge of Judge's sentence. ''I never read the Judge Dredd series,'' says Zucker. ''Did he say it in the comic books?'' When told it's the cybercop's credo, Zucker laughs: ''Is it? 'I am the law'? How funny.'' And don't call him Shirley.