Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 29

today's Iv interviews: 11:30 ABC: Donald Regan, Treasury Secretary 11:30 CBS: Dr. Allan Lansing, Humana Heart Institute 12 noon NBC: Robert Dole, new Senate majority leaderL Complete tv updates, radio, soaps: Page 16D. Sunday, Dec. 2, 1984 SHIRLEY EDER 2 BILLBOARD 6 ART 8 DETROIT FREE PRESS Call Entertainment: 222-6828 7. 1 Dob Prosecutor petitioning for capital punishment Insider's Notebook With 65,000 petition signatures and "all the money we need" on hand, Oakland County Prosecutor L.

Brooks Patterson predicts his question "Should Michigan adopt capital punishment for the crime of first-degree murder?" will be on the 1986 election ballot after he gets the necessary 400,000 signatures. jmx ii While management puts on a naPPy holiday face around WNIC-FM these days, heavy dif- I I 1 I mm mm find the right person to fit the bit part Gannon iei cutes nave ueveiupeu ue- tween Jim Harper and sidekick Steve Gannon, the morning stars. And contract-less evening starWNIC vice-president Alan Almond has told his lawyer to offer his super-popular "Pillow Talk" around town and elsewhere. One of Detroit's biggest media stars was so incensed when his wife kicked him out of their house again that he reportedly returned to his former mansion and broke the windows of her car so she couldn't drive to meet her boyfriend. Auto insiders are whispering about the depth of the sweetheart rtpflls fiov.

Rlan. Diane Haithman West Coast series, which provides a nice, steady job and usually lots of overtime pay. Joy points out that some extras who work steadily may earn up to $40,000 a year, but those cases are rare. Most earn something closer to $1,000. "I think it's the Cinderella-ism of the whole thing that keeps a lot of them going," he explains.

"They want to be in the movies, even though it doesn't mean a lot in terms of their pockets. "It's a great job for students for housewives, part-time work, it's probably ideal. But some, like those ladies," Joy says referring to three middle-aged women bustling through the "It's essentially unskilled labor, do you know what I'm saying? I mean, it's not like brain surgery." Director Carl Joy corridor outside Central Casting's windows, "are dependent on it for their livelihood. Sometimes we get divorcees with four mouths to feed. It's real tough.

The most critical time in the casting operation Harper cnard had to make with Mazda to insure its teaming up with Ford in Flat Rock. Labor cost "equalizers" like "you wouldn't believe," sources say. And look for a Korean car manufacturer to get a plant cranked up here by 1986 to make and sell its own low-price cars in the U.S. Birmingham's Broadway hit-backer Ivan Bloch his latest is "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" has another in the wings: Tony Macaulay's "Czar of the Movies," a big dance comedy about the early days of moviemaking. It'll have a superstar director whose initials could be B.S.

or G.K. Insiders say Lee Iacocca's goose may have been cooked with Henry Ford in 1964 14 years before Ford fired him when Iacocca grabbed all the coverage of the Mustang intro at New York's '64 World's Fair, including both Time and Newsweek covers. And Hank the Deuce never forgets, never forgives. The Detroit Tigers have ordered over 100 beautiful diamond 1984 World Series Championship rings from Balfour for the immediate Tiger family 12 to 14 more than the club passed out to the 1968 championship family. WINNER: Mayor Young, no more Mr.

Nice Guy, vowing to play serious hardball with Detroit's street criminals at his positive crime summit. LOSER: Mayor Young, Mr. Rabbit Ears, lobbing silly softballs of blame at the Detroit Free PressWDIV messengers bearing the survey results about Detroit's negative national image. PARTING SHOT: A sign on a shop in Washington reads: "All the worms you want $1." Pentagon general walks in and says, "I'll take $2 worth." comes between 10 a.m. and noon Monday, Wednesday or Friday.

Those are visiting hours. But when the receptionist asks, "Are you visiting?" she doesn't want to know whether you just stopped in for coffee and a chat. She wants to know if you have come to meet the casting directors. Said Joy, "It affords them (the visitors) the chance to see casting people in the flesh, to display a new hairdo or outfit, or that they got new teeth something like that." EVELYN DUTTON, who now works producing sound effects, has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1961, and has worked as an extra for many years. "The times have changed," she says.

"So many of these young people, they don't know what it takes when someone shows up looking great and perfectly prepared. "I've got 50 or 60 wigs. I probably have 300 pairs of shoes and 50 pairs of boots. Some years I HOLLYWOOD It sounds like a bad line out of an even worse movie: "Call Central Casting!" But Central Casting does exist. And all you have to do is call.

Central Casting, located on the 1 1th floor of a glass-walled high-rise on Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills, is a frantic, fast-paced microcosm of the Hollywood system. It's the place where some of the most hopeful and desperate people in show biz get a chance to meet the too-busy-to-care. Central Casting provides movie and television producers with their most prevalent human commodity the extras. Quite incidentally, they give the extras a chance in a million of becoming a star.

A few of the types on file: fat men and women, gorgeous girls, military types, muscle men, bikini girls, people with nice hands (to double for stars), cowboys, hippies and "guys with beards." Then there are those who get paid extra for having a special ability or owning special equipment fencers, golfers, jugglers, welders, pool trick-shooters, people who own fancy cars, professional uniforms or furs. Most of the extra work, however, goes to the Beautiful People group aged 20-40 for women, 20-50 for men. "It's still a glamor business," explains Central Casting director Carl Joy. ALONG ONE wall of the Central Casting office are file boxes containing photos and resumes of the 4,000 or so who are registered with the Screen Extras Guild. Along the other are disordered stacks containing photos, resumes and pleading letters from hundreds of people who hope to break into the business.

are ready whenever you are. David and Sophia "I have had a lot of experience and feel I am very professional, my wardrobe is very extensive and my car is a 1972 silver BMW Sincerely, Pamela "Please give me a chance. I'm innocent. Yours, Mike Joy strolled through the noisy, crowded room where casting directors try to match the men and women who call in with the needs of the producers calling in on the hot lines (a call on a hot line always gets through). "It's essentially unskilled labor, do you know what I'm saying?" said Joy.

"I mean, it's not like brain surgery. You need more than you use the supply has got to be greater than the demand. "We're hiring people Monday to work Tuesday. They call in on lines they are assigned we tell them the best way to make sure they don't miss a job is to call in once every 20 minutes or so. Some of them buy beepers, get pagers, answering services.

"They become almost like prisoners to the telephone. It's frustrating, it maybe breeds paranoia, and I sympathize with these people. But that's the business they decided to get into." IT'S A MORE complicated business than it seems. One casting director grumbles to another that a skinny female punk rocker he just sent to a set was rejected. "She's not as unattractive or ugly as they wanted," he complained.

A more pressing problem, however, seems to be finding a short Vietnamese man for an episode of the TV show "Airwolf." What being an extra means to a Screen Extras member is $87 per day for a plain old extra, $97 for a special ability extra, $141 for a silent bit extra, to $234 a day for those who dance, skate or swim. Non-union extras make about $35 a day. It pays to have an extensive wardrobe and other stuff on hand. If you need a cat or dog for a scene, bringing your own could add $23 to your salary. Golf clubs and bag are worth $12.

A hairpiece is worth $18. A police motorcycle nets $50, but a large portable radio is worth only $4. Not having the right item might not only cost the extra the additional salary, but also the job. "Some of the girls have six or seven furs sables, minks, chinchillas," Joy says. "Some of them drive a Mercedes.

"It's totally disproportionate to their standard of life. But hopefully, they will pay for themselves in time." THE CREAM of extra work is commercials producers must pay the extra extra for the right to air the commercial an unlimited number of See EXTRAS, Page 7C A times or working as a stand-in for a star on names 8 faces Does Murphy's movie dirty Detroit's image? DETROIT MOVIEGOERS are agog over Wednesday's Detroit area opening of "Beverly Hills Cop, which stars hot comic. Eddie Murphy. Amid all the attention to Detroit's image recently one wonders whether the visuals of Murphy playing a Detroit policeman wandering through posh Beverly Hills in a sweatsHirt is just another dose of tarnish. Co-producer Don Simpson says Beverly Hills comes out worse.

"We didn't want to make J) 1 1 WW another tie, another pair of earrings, or one more flask of cologne or after shave. The Free Press entertainment staff sniffed around for what's available and herewith provide some recommendations for spending your holiday dollars. The sights and sounds of Christmas records, tapes, laser audio discs, videodiscs and videotapes are the new tech descendants of those old silver bells and jingle bells. And when it comes to yuletide gift-giving decisions, it's a safe bet that all those new baubles are pined for more than Free PressMARTHA THIERRY greatest hits Gary Graff Classics John Guinn pop rock Gary Graff video Stephen Advokat Murphy a movie that had any racial over tones," Simpson said. "It wasn't that kind of movie, it wasn't about that issue.

We left that up to Eddie, and he didn't want it to be central either. Beverly Hills is a satire in and of itself and it didn't need any help from us." YOU MAY NEED cotton for your ears by the time "The Cotton Club" hits Detroit area movie screens Dec. 14. Even more monumental than the film's oft-chronicled production troubles is its advertising campaign, which began early this month. The first television spots for the film were broadcast on Nov.

7, "almost not early enough," according to Orion executive Charles Glenn. Thirty-second advertisements promoting Orion's big Christmas film have appeared during shows including "Today" and "Dynasty," and the "Ellis Island" mini-series. Another recent hit, "Fatal Vision," also carried advertisements for the film. THOUGH HE is music director-designate of the tony Los Angeles Philharmonic, Andre Previn says he is still trying to shake his Hollywood pop image, at least in Hollywood. "People think I am hypersensitive about my pop image.

Well, it is a problem here," said Previn in the Los Angeles Times. But the maestro thinks he's making progress. "This summer a student in Tanglewood (the Massachusetts music est) came up to me all excited. 'I saw an old movie on TV last night, and the credits said the music was by Andre Previn. Is that a Imagine that." tdited by JOHN SMYNTEK fc Staff and wires contributed 'Tis the season to release greatest hits packages.

Some of the most notable: Rocker Elvis Presley (RCA): To celebrate what would have been his 50th birthday in January, this package of hot rock from 1956-57 does nothing short of kicking you know. Greatest Hits, Vol. 3 John Denver (RCA): The selection is getting a bit thin. The first two greatest hits collections are better bets. No Remorse Motorhead (Island): The weak of heart need not apply.

A two-record retrospective that makes diamonds look like pliable alloys. Greatest Hits Teddy Pendergrass (Phila. A capable sampler of Pendergrass' hot, passionate soul. Footsteps In the Dark Cat Stevens Billed as "Greatest Hits Vol. 2," this sampling repeats tunes from his first greatest hits record, but it also includes theo superb songs fiom the film "Harold make the repetition easi- See GREATEST HITS, Page 6C Here are recordings for each of the 12 days of Christmas, with the hope that they will prove to be more suitable gifts than partridges in pear trees.

Bach: "Magnificat" Soloists, The Bach Ensemble, Joshua Rifkin, director (Pro-Arte PAD-185). A superb rendition of Bach's magnificent setting of the New Testament canticle that features period Instruments and demonstrates Rifkin's controversial belief that the composer used only one singer to a part in his choral music. There is so-called authenticity here, but much more important, a performance that brims over with vitality and purpose. Handel: "Messiah" Soloists, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Chorus, Robert Shaw, conductor (Telarc DG-1 0093-2). This is not a strictly authentic performance (Shaw uses a chorus of 60 voices and ar orchestra of 39 playing modern instruments), but It far outshines Ton See CLASSICS, Page 6C Here are a dozen pop music stocking-stuffers for the spectrum of tastes: Reckless Bryan Adams Hard rock that's commercial to the core well, except for the trash dumpster solo on the last song but it still works because Adams and his crew never forget they're out to have fun.

A lesson for the whole Journey-Styx-REO school of thought. Chinese Wall Philip Bailey (Columbia): Genesis singer-drummer-workaholic Phil Collins has become the smart-money man to collaborate with during the past few years. Earth, Wind Fire singer Bailey makes a wise bet by enlisting Collins to produce and play on his album. Besides a strong duet, "Easy Lover," the performances lift the album's quality above some inconsistent songwrit-ing. The Longest Day The Del Fuegos (Slash): The best rock 'n' roll populists always make sure their views are tempered by good songwriting and See RECORDS, Page 6C Ever notice how well videocassettes fit into a Christmas stocking? Home video retailers and manufacturers hope you do.

They'll be promoting more home movies and instructional tapes this season than ever, hoping to boost their $445 million a year industry even further. Approximately 300 new video products are released each month some dazzling, some dismaying. If you're thinking about adding a movie or two to the Christmas cache, the following list might help. Pennant lever: "The Natural" 1984 (RCA; $79.95) Directed by Barry Levinson starring Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Glenn Close and Richard Farnsworth. "The Natural" follows the trials and tribulations of natural athlete See VIDEO, Pa.ie 6C.