Pamelyn Ferdin voiced Fern Arable, the little girl who raises Wilbur the pig, in the 1973 animated film "Charlotte's Web". Ferdin was considered for the role of Regan MacNeil, the demon-possessed girl in the 1973 William Friedkin film "The Exorcist", but casting directors decided she was too well-known and cast the then-less-familiar actress Linda Blair. She withdrew from acting in the mid-1980s, but did voice the character of Shelley Kelley in the Kids' WB series "Detention" in 1999. After leaving her job as a public relations director in the mid-1990s, Ferdin began working for the Center for Animal Care and Control in
The Exorcist (film) stuntman jerked her around using a special effects cable during the scene when Regan slaps her mother. According to the documentary "Fear of God: The Making of the Exorcist", the injury did not cause permanent damage, although Burstyn was upset the shot of her screaming in pain was used in the film. After Father William O'Malley confirmed to Friedkin that he trusted the director, Friedkin slapped him hard across the face to generate a deeply solemn reaction for the last rites scene; this offended the many Catholic crew members on the set. He also fired blanks without warning on the