FOR ANNIE POTTS, TIMELY FILM ON TV EVANGELISTS

“You’ve got to admit that the timing is uncanny,” said Annie Potts. “I’ve just finished this movie about a husband-and-wife team of TV evangelists. And do they get in trouble. . . . “

Potts, one of the stars of CBS-TV’s “Designing Women,” last week completed work on a new movie for the Vista organization, “Pass the Amo,” shot in the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs. With Tim Curry as co-star, the film is directed by David Beaird (“My Chauffeur”).

“I just finished one of my big scenes a couple of weeks ago when I turned on the TV and watched the scandal breaking over Jim and Tammy Bakker,” said Potts. (Television evangelist Bakker, relinquished his large ministry and vacation resort after admitting to a sexual encounter and subsequent payoffs to keep the matter quiet.) “I thought, ‘This is incredible’--I know if I were Vista, I’d be panting to get the movie out fast.”

But however much Vista is panting, that can’t be done. There is still another week’s shooting to be done on the movie.

“The earliest release we can hope for,” says Herb Jaffe (who co-produced with Mort Engelberg), “is six months from now. Say October.”

“Pass the Amo” is the story of two television evangelists, the Rev. Ray and Darla Porter, (Curry and Potts) who live high on the hog from their religious programs--driving around in Rolls-Royces and maintaining homes in Bermuda and Rancho Mirage.

Because of some shady dealings, their church is one day broken into by four people (among them Linda Kozlowski, fresh from “Crocodile Dundee”). On the way out, the intruders accidentally stumble into the TV studio next door where the couple’s broadcast is taking place. The invaders then take everyone hostage.

“It’s quite a show they interrupt,” said Potts with a chuckle. “We have a Samson, clad in a loincloth and chained up, and 30 angels complete with wings.

“Once we become hostages, of course, everything begins to fall apart. We discover that my husband is an adulterer. It’s real black comedy.”

Eureka Springs was chosen as the ideal location for “Pass the Amo” because, although in winter it’s a quiet little place, in summer it becomes a huge tourist attraction. A giant statue of Christ dominates the town.

When the unit arrived, there was opposition in certain quarters “but that eventually died down,” says Jaffe. “We explained that we weren’t making a movie attacking religion; we were attacking those who exploit it.”

Potts says she jumped at the chance of being in the movie as soon as she read the script.

“I’m sure that when the scandal about Jim and Tammy Bakker broke, there was a wild scramble among producers in this town to plan a movie on the subject,” she said. “Nobody can accuse us of doing that; we were already in production.”

In “Pass the Amo” Potts is, once again, a Southerner (she’s a native Kentuckian).

“Years ago my agent said to me, ‘Annie, you’ve got to change your voice if you want to get anywhere in movies.’ I said I wouldn’t. ‘It may make things more difficult for me now,’ I said, ‘but it’s my voice that sets me apart and will give me longevity as an actress.’

“I still believe that. I know it isn’t always easy casting me--I’m small, and I do have a funny voice. I don’t fit into everyone’s idea of what a leading lady looks like. But I’m doing all right.”

That she is. Since her movie debut in “Corvette Summer” with Mark Hamill (says that film’s writer director, Matthew Robbins: “I sensed immediately that Annie was something special”), she’s gone on to make her mark--sometimes small but always indelible--in such films as “Ghostbusters,” “Crimes of Passion,” “Stick” and “Pretty in Pink.”

The critics have always been kind to her and she in turn is grateful to them.

“People say it’s not done,” she said, “but I always write and say thanks for a review. I’ve been so lucky. I’d be hard-pressed to think of a bad notice I’ve had.”

Fourteen years ago, just before her 21st birthday, she was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Her legs were fractured in 15 places, she spent three months in hospitals and a year in a wheelchair and on crutches. She still limps slightly and the only exercise she can do is swimming.

“There was a time I didn’t think I’d ever be able to work again,” she said, “so I’ve never stopped being grateful; I’m so happy to be here. And I’m getting good work. I like the series ‘Designing Women’ and I love this new movie, ‘Pass the Amo.’ Really, I’m so lucky.”