The Miami Herald from Miami, Florida • 46

JHtami Herald SECTION WEDNESDAY JULY 1 1 992 i QUICK read REFLECTIVE RIF Me Phi Me extols the virtues of fierce individuality 5E -W Deborah Harry lead singer for Blondie from 1975 to 1983 was born in Miami on this day 46 years ago But Harry whose band took its name from her peroxided tresses is sporting a darker 'do these days: is on vacation getting a she says can bring her back any time I YC! CO! Start planning for your weekend early with our full-page guide to happening 8E rn i CATCH Musicians your chance to be heard A RISING Send us your tapes let labels critique the best Among the things really happy that I am not: A politi STAR cian Brown caused the budget deficit the hole in the ozone and may well have participated in the beating of Rodney A single person for In A League of Their Own 9 Geena Davis proves she knows how to bat for herself LEONARD PITTS JR POP MUSIC By RYAN MURPHY Special to The Herald LOS ANGELES At first Geena Davis denies she has an eight-foot chicken roosting in her living room she asks eyes widening into orbs of Lillian Gish innocence She pauses then comes clean she says with a laugh and explains inflatable rubber she saw it while driving by an antique store and to have it But man do you have to print Her chin juts out with mock defiance that embarrassed I have an eight-foot chicken in my house mind Not that embarrassed by much of anything am pretty she declares This is well documented in her new film A League of Their Own director Penny sentimental comic look at girls in cleats Based on a true story the film begins in 1 943 when the ranks of professional baseball were being dissipated as the players went off to war To keep the national pastime rolling along male managers came up with the idea of putting women in pinstripes And the American Girls Professional Baseball League was bom In cinematic homage to the league which disbanded in 1954 Davis plays Dottie Hinson catcher for the Rockford Peaches She was not the first choice for the lead role The mercurial Debra Winger was to play Dottie but bowed out two weeks before shooting began because she feared the scene-stealing capability of Madonna who has a supporting part in the film Davis who pinch-hit I thought our date Suzy? Got your medical report and complete sexual history there? OK An aspiring musician hoping for a major label deal If I just had to choose among the three well I know Some politicians make decent bucks As for single people variety is the spice of life But an aspinng Man the up side to that? If that term describes you you probably wonder the same thing from time to time Well hang on help is on the way The Great South Florida Sound Search which we inaugurate today is designed to get you a hearing and a personal critique from several major record labels I mean what you go through it all for it? why you put up with endless rehearsals in a stuffy garage 3 am gigs at slimy nightclubs and all the joys and challenges of abject poverty Yet all the time convinced got the stuff to make it including dreams goals and talent by the boxcar So you save your money you hone your chops you cut your demo you send it out to the labels and and Nothing And then one day eons after you mailed it your demo comes back the cassette case smashed and a form letter enclosed MrMs (Fill in the blank): Thank you for your interest in recording for our label The fact that we are sending your demo back to you in a rocket ship necessarily mean we thought it sucked eggs We would however be pleased if you would be so kind as to lose our no fun It takes a tremendous amount of belief in yourself to keep going And you keep saying to yourself the right person just heard my stuff I know I could get a deal Or at the very least I could get some feedback that would put me on the right easy to feel at such times TURNAROUND: Since her role in Thelma Louise kooky nice Geena has turned around to become PLEASESEE DAVIS 2E A winner in any League By JACKIE POTTS Herald Writer MOVIE REVIEW A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (PG) Vi Jj 1 A League of Their Own is as exhilarating as a double-header at Wrigley Field It captures all the familiar baseball sensations with a curve: the hollow crack of the bat connecting with the ball the electric tension before that crucial ninth-inning pitch the camaraderie as they spit and adjust their skirts right Skirts With this tribute to the real-life All American Girls Professional Baseball League (1942-1954) director Penny Marshall (Awakenings Big confirms what some of us have suspected all along that she can play hardball in I' ft big leagues Each line is delivered with panache every performance seems better than the one before And if the movie occasionally resorts to maudlin sentimentality excusable After all where else can you see Madonna slide head-first (fully clothed) into third base? The original AAGPBL was a gimmick invented by Phillip Wri- DESERVES TO BE A HIT: You have to love baseball to like A League of Their Own PLEASESEE LEAGUE 2E PLEASESEE PITTS 7E Ailing boss made a Healthy Choice CONAGRA CHIEF: When Mike Harper had to change his diet he had his company create the Healthy Choice collection of foods for healthy Heart attack launched successful food line food all with reduced fat cholesterol and sodium There are Healthy Request soups and spaghetti sauce from Healthy Treasures fish sticks and fish fillets from Mrs Le Menu Healthy frozen entrees McCain Healthy Slices pizza Healthy Favorites from Oscar Mayer Van de Crisp and Healthy Fish Healthy Sensation Salad Dressing Healthy Portion dinner and Hormel Healthy Selections entree cups says the 64-year-old Harper have a Healthy Choice frozen entree or frozen dinner three to four times a week I have Healthy Choice hot dogs at least once a week and Healthy Choice ice cream at least a couple of times a week And every dam day at work I have a Healthy Choice breakfast By diet alone Harper is a most unusual man But then there are not many people in this world whose heart attack could single-handedly launch a new product (Healthy Choice of course) which in turn could create a revolution in the food industry Today one food company after another is racing to bring out By CAROLINE MAYER Washington Post Service WASHINGTON Charles Harper has a healthy appetite At 6 feet 6 inches not too surprising What is surprising is what the chairman of the second-largest food-processing firm ConAgra Inc consumes day in day out speaking I have a Healthy Choice soup every day except Sunday either for lunch or For ConAgra which for the past three years has had a fat lead in sales of more nutritious products these new PLEASESEE HEALTHY 3E.