giving in to the Dark Side and going over to C#.NET

It is possible to make a Perl module available to the .NET framework so that any language in .NET can use it. It is also possible to use a .NET object from a Perl script.

This sounds as bizarre as mating a giraffe with a turtle, but evidently ActiveState has figured out how to do it. This link ActiveState PerlNET Overview shows an example of shows an example of a Perl module (WWW::Babelfish) being called from within a .NET C# program.

Anyway, it would seem that it would be possible to say build a GUI within .NET and use Perl for say the DB code or use some other kind of functionality provided by an existing CPAN module.

I have never personally used PerlNET. But if some mixed Perl and .NET implementation were desired, then PerlNET seems like something to consider. Of course this isn't freeware and you would have to have an AS PDK license.