Is All That Chazz?

''Mark was the architect, selecting which anecdotes should be used, critiquing them, and putting them in order-Mark provided the blueprints and Chazz built the house,'' says Steve Kluger, a screenwriter (Once Upon a Crime) who reports he sat in on several Travis-Palminteri writing sessions and offered comments on the first draft of the screenplay. ''The irony,'' Kluger continues, ''is that Mark had to talk Chazz into putting in the role of the father-the role that De Niro is now playing. That's why this is so unforgivable.''

Palminteri's old pal Renzulli agrees that Travis ''certainly developed the play. Whenever Chazz came back (from Theatre West) he'd say, 'Oh, Mark did this, Mark did that.' Whenever I made suggestions, Chazz would say, 'I have to run that by Mark.'''

What suggestions? Renzulli says he urged making the gangster the killer, suggested the central conflict between the local capo and the father, helped - write the opening and closing monologues, wrote several other passages and punch lines, and provided the title. But Renzulli says he never intended to sue, even after Palminteri refused to acknowledge his role, because ''losing my friendship was punishment enough.

''I was the one who was allowed in the gangster social clubs and raised by negative elements in the neighborhood,'' says Renzulli, an East Boston native whose Rolodex contains friends' names with prison addresses. ''These weren't lines I gave Chazz. This was wisdom paid for at a great price. For him to deny that I made a contribution to this play is to cheapen the gift.

''I worked with him on this piece in the daytime, then he'd go to Theatre West at night and work things out on stage,'' adds Renzulli, who appears with Gerard Depardieu in an upcoming Disney film, My Father, the Hero, and just sold a screenplay, Where's Brooklyn?, to Mel Gibson's Icon Productions. ''I wish nothing but the best for Chazz. But he has to learn to give credit where credit is due.''

Not that there's any consensus on where credit belongs. Actor-writer Patrick Cupo, a member of the Theatre West workshop, says it is all Palminteri's. ''I was there when Chazz put pen to paper,'' says Cupo. ''These allegations are a joke. I never heard about Chazz having help writing or developing the play until it started becoming successful. If A Bronx Tale bombed, would they have wanted to be connected with it? When someone makes suggestions, does that make them a writer or developer?''

Palminteri certainly doesn't think so. ''Nobody helped me with the writing. It's such a ludicrous remark,'' he says. ''A hundred-something people saw it grow. There's always going to be people trying to take credit because of jealousy and envy.''

Yet Renzulli isn't the only one who recognized his voice in A Bronx Tale. ''When I saw the play, there were actual stories from Frank's stand-up act or conversations with him,'' recalls Nina Tassler, Warner Bros. Television's director of drama development. ''After the play, I called Chazz and said it was amazing how much of Frank I saw in this piece. He acknowledged this.''

''When you have a community of actors, and one breaks out, as I did,'' Palminteri counters, ''it's hard for that person to fit in. There's bitter feeling and jealousy. I think Frank is a talented guy and I wish him the best, but I think he's getting bad advice from his friends.''

And there it stands, with friendships broken and conflicting charges unresolved. Meanwhile, A Bronx Tale, ironically, is off to a sluggish start at the box office despite strong reviews. Palminteri is writing the screen version of Faithful, his second play, for Tribeca. And five years after they say that they began, separately, to help Palminteri—one by day, the other by night—Renzulli and Travis finally spoke to each other for the first time on the phone last month. Renzulli says they talked for 10 minutes. Travis reports it was 20 or 30.

Additional reporting by Marshall Fine