The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 41

'Ring' has more spico than a soap opera. F3 Stage F4, Pop music F4, Puzzles E6 Sunday News Journal Jan. 23, 1983 F1 Casting is Peeeie du Font's new line on Wilmington native helped cast 'Annie' 1 i jii i AW lit i 'm''v aft Af Pennie du Pont, a casting assistant for "Annie," helped cast Aileen Quinn (second from left) in the title role, SO FAR, "ANNIE" and "The Toy" have not been the hits Columbia Pictures hoped for, but both have won critical and audience praise for the performances' of their young stars. For that success, at least part of the credit goes to Pennie du Pont, a Wilmington native whose career in stage, film and television has lately cast her in the role of casting director. Du Pont, 42, now a resident on both coasts, depending upon where her work takes her, helped find Aileen Quinn and the other enthusiastic orphans of "Annie" and young Scott Schwartz of "The Toy." It is by chance that both Quinn and Schwartz are from the greater Philadelphia area.

The searches in which du Pont took part included casting calls that drew 8,000 children throughout the country. Finding the right child is difficult, as Stanley Jaffe, producer and director of "Without a Trace," said in an interview last week. He saw about 3,000 children, and many of them did a scene with star Kate Nelligan before the right two youngsters were found for the film, which opens Feb. 4. Similarly, he tested hundreds of youngsters with Dustin Hoffman before he found Justin Henry for "Kramer vs.

Kramer." While du Pont and other casting personnel might do the screening, and a star might test with some or many youngsters, the final decision rests with the directors. In du Pont's two films, that meant John Huston for "Annie" and Richard Don-ner for "The Toy." She is particularly proud of helping to find the other moppets in "Annie," especially tiny Toni Ann Gisondi, a tyke who won the hearts of audiences. ON "ANNIE," a small-letter screen credit identified Pennie du Pont as a "casting assistant." For "The Toy," she got the screen all to herself as the "casting director" because her responsibility had been far greater. While she played no role in signing the two principals Jackie Gleason and Richard Pryor (or is it Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason) she supervised the rest of the casting for "The Toy," down to the extras needed for the crowd scenes shot in the Baton Rouge, area last summer. While she concedes that it's hard to cast children, she found it equally hard to complete one of her other recent casting chores.

She was in New York late last year to find standbys of men in their 50s for Broadway's "A Little Family Business." As she explained in an interview at the time, "After you get to 50, if you're a good actor you've gotten to the point where you're working steadily, or you've given up and gone into real estate, or you're no good." The men she found didn't stand by very long. "A Little Family Business," which starred Angela Lansbury and John McMartin, closed 10 days after its formal opening. Du Pont had worked earlier in California on the casting of the road company of "Sugar Babies" now in Philadelphia with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, and on 1 Pennie du Pont of Wilmington president of Lyons Studios in Wilmington. Her sister, Debbie (Deborah) Riegel, also still lives in the Wilmington area. Pennie du Pont says her work in show business has encompassed both the usual struggles working at the Saks information counter, for example, while awaiting acting assignments and successes.

She has acted off-Broadway and on tour, in television and films, and has also worked behind the scenes. And she concedes that her du Pont name was sometimes a liability that she would occasionally be told, "If you want to act, why don't you buy yourself a theater?" i 1 Film by Harry F. Themal "Merlin," which stars magician Doug Hen-ning and Chita Rivera. Its postponed Broadway opening is now set for Jan. 30.

When "Family Business" moved to New York, she left her Hollywood apartment and returned to her Greenwich Village apartment as a headquarters. She had originally come to New York after her 1963 graduation from the Yale Drama School. At Yale, "I loved being in an environment where suddenly everyone was as crazy about the theater as I was," she said. "There was a fantastic camaraderie and we worked our tails off." Classmates included Sam Waterston, John -Guare, Oliver Hailey and Austin Pendleton. Du Pont says she always wanted to work in the theater, even during the years she was attending Tatnall and Alexis I.

du Pont schools in Delaware and Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Conn. During her school years she performed both at the old Robin Hood (now Candlelight) Theater in Ardentown and the defunct Brandywine Music Box at U.S. 1 and 202. Her parents were the late Helen and James Q. du Pont of Montchanin her father was an administrative assistant in the Du Pont public relations department.

Pennie was born Helen Quinn du Pont but early acquired the name of Pennie to avoid confusion with her mother. One brother, Jamie (James Bidermann du Pont), is in New York doing voice-overs for commercials. Another brother, Colie (Pierre Coleman du Pont), a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, is vice Finding the right child is difficult; while casting personnel do the screening, the final decision rests with directors such as Stanley Jaffe, who saw about 3,000 children for his movie "Without a Trace" before the right two youngsters were found. She became well known as the host of "Daytime," later called "Celebrity," an interview program that was one of New York's most popular in the mid-1970s and was syndicated around the country. A producer who saw her on it brought her to the Pacific Coast to team her with tennis veteran John Newcombe to tape 65 health-and sports-oriented TV shows for cable systems, but "Good Time," as it was called, was only sold to Australia.

While in The Los Angeles area she learned that Ray Stark was looking for help in casting the children of "Annie" and the newest phase of her career was launched. Television nil 1 sl- Columbia Pictures photc and many of the film's orphans. kin Scott Schwartz of "The Toy" Now she's back in Hollywood again, having just finished West Coast casting for Dino DeLaurentiis' "Amityville 3D," which will be directed by the veteran Richard Fleischer. Still unreleased are two other films on which she also did casting: "Blue Thunder," a helicopter adventure with Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell, directed by John Badham, and "Star 80," Bob Fosse's version of the story of Dorothy Stratten, the tragically killed Playboy centerfold See DU PONT F2 by Bill Hayden Movie Channel, a Warner-Amex pay cable service marketed by Rollins, says Rick Hubbell, cable operations vice president for Rollins, Inc. Federal regulations require a cable system to carry all the television stations in whose primary coverage area it is included.

An exception is made in the case of the scrambled signals of over-the-air pay services, which are best described as pay cable without the cable. Since clear reception of these signals require a special descrambler subscription television stations provide their customers, the Federal Communications Commission leaves their inclusion on cable systems at the option of the system operator. Some systems do pick up the scrambled signals, and under a contract arrangement with individual subscription stations, act as the station's sales agents to their own customers, receiving a percentage of the monthly subscription fee in return. Such systems as Rollins, which already offer one or more pay cable services, have decided such arrangements are more trouble than they are worth, Hubbell says. See ROLLINS F2 sy-s Immmmmmmmimmm mmfmmiMmu Downtown Gallery's nostalgic 'Couples' fits valentine season USA Cable addec to Rollins system Art by Penelope Bass Cope if IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, your thoughts turn to romance and your knees to water as Valentine's Day approaches.

The sight of red roses and little sugar hearts saying "I love you" and "You're cute" bring back memories from school days. And the cards. The lacy, the funny and the gooey were good when they were anonymous, but even better when they came some special boy. Because, of course, Valentine's Day is for couples. Which brings me to the subject of this column, "Couples," an exhibition of 18 pictures at the Downtown Gallery of the Delaware Art Museum through Feb.

16. Taken from the museum's permanent collection, the 16 oil paintings, one watercolor and one ink drawing in this funny and nostalgic show were all used originally as the basis for magazine illustrations. But the best thing about this show is not the art, oddly enough, but the titles of the paintings on view. Would you believe: "Facing each other at last, the girl white, shaking, her eyes aflame," for example? This oil on canvas by Gayle Hos-kins, dated 1909, invites description. In short, a young lady and a gen- ASIDE EFFECT of the subscription television war being fought in Philadelphia is the as-yet-unheralded addition of a new cable program service for Rollins Cablevision's subscribers.

Philadelphia's WWSG-TV (57) began full-time scrambled-signal operation two weeks ago as an over-the-air pay movie channel. Since, then, Rollins has been carrying USA Cable on its system's Channel 13, the channel it had allocated to WWSG-TV's daytime financial news programming. USA Cable, which is also carried on Storer's downstate cable operations, is a 24-hour, advertiser-supported general interest channel carrying a heavy prime-time schedule of major league and col- lege sporting events. Rollins, which has 67,000 subscribers in northern New Castle1 County, originally planned to add USA Cable to its system Feb. 1 and has an advertising and promotion campaign built around that date ready to launch.

However, rather than leave the channel unused when WWSG-TV changed its operation, Rollins picked up USA Cable ahead of schedule. Another reason for the lack of fanfare so far was the already scheduled use of Channel 13 for this weekend's free preview of The tleman confront each other in a parlor. The lady is pink and pretty. Her "eyes aflame" are limpid, dark saucers full of demure seduction. In her lowered gaze aimed at his chest lurks a touch of delicacy and weakness.

What could evoke such imminent collapse in the soul of a healthy young woman? Loving a bully, perhaps. Her opponent in the painting is an Edwardian-looking fellow with a wing-tipped collar. He leans toward her as she shrinks back. The haughty gent looks down his nose at the sweet young thing in front of him, his proud grimace set off by a snarling tiger-skin rug under his feet. The colors in the room are deep and rich.

The woman's hair contrasts nicely with her white blouse and black skirt. Her dark-haired companion wears a gray suit and tie with a white shirt, which look dandy indeed against the orange and black tiger. The room has lots See 'COUPLES' F2 A 1 A Gayle 0 Delaware Art Museum photo Hoskins oil from the Downtown Gallery's "Couples.".