Hoopla for one-line movie debut proves there are no small parts.

Burt Reynolds, Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve were the stars of “Switching Channels” the other evening at the AMC Six Theater at Rolling Hills Plaza. But it was Noel Gray--in purple poof-sleeved taffeta--who stepped out of a limousine and posed for photographers in a slice of vintage Hollywood ballyhoo.

Noel Who?

“Everyone at the theater was wondering what was going on,” said the 26-year-old San Pedro actress, who was accompanied by two limousine-loads of people in fancy dress.

What was going on was a celebration and promotion by her husband and friends of Gray’s single line in her first movie.

“It was much ado about her screen debut,” said Brian A. Gainey of Manhattan Beach, the owner of a marketing company who was billed as Gray’s “Impressive Press Contact.”

Once moviegoers knew what all the fuss was about, Gray said, “they were congratulating me.” In this remake of the “His Girl Friday” newspaper story, Gray tells Reynolds that he has an important visitor. The audience applauded when she and her lone line--”Sully, Mr. Berger is in your office”--had their moment on the screen.

“I thought, ‘O God,’ ” Gray said, explaining that she had never seen the movie--or even her face on the big screen--before that night. But she added confidently, “I did all right with it, but it’s hard to go wrong with just one line.”

Gray, whose acting experience has been limited to doing scenes in workshops, admits that connections helped her break into the movies. Her husband, Murray Tildesley, is a friend of the picture’s producer, Don Carmody--best-known for the slapstick “Porkies” films.

Gray said she “called (Carmody) to find out if they had a part for a redhead who was a good actress and ready to go, and he said they’d not cast all the roles and he’d look into it. He called back and said there was a part.”

She worked on the film for two days last summer in Toronto, where she got to learn about stars and the movies, earn $1,300, and play baseball with the “Three Men and a Baby” company that was also shooting in the Canadian city.

Born of British colonist parents in what was then Northern Rhodesia and is now Zambia, Gray said she went to school in England. After her parents moved to Canada, she became a teen-age synchronized swimming champion. She sold real estate in British Columbia, but show biz lured her to Los Angeles three years ago.

If the evening appearance at Rolling Hills Plaza was about a group of friends on a lark, it also was about boosting Gray’s career.

“It was more for fun than publicity, but that would be icing on the cake,” said Gray, who is hoping to land an agent to go along with the Screen Actors Guild card she is carrying as a result of her first role.

“I want a feature movie career as an actress,” she said.