MOVIES - Feb. 8, 1988

Donna Rice last week turned down an offer to play the part of a muckraking photojournalist in “Tunnels,” a $2.2 million comedy-adventure movie set to begin filming in Los Angeles next week, according to director Mark Byers. The movie, being produced by Little Pictures and financed and distributed by Film Ventures International, is “a women’s buddy movie” with its two female stars scrambling through long-forgotten tunnels hot in pursuit of a story. Rice, who had been in discussions with Byers for about two months--since before presidential hopeful Gary Hart re-entered the race--passed on the project because it was not the right one for her, her personal manager said.