YOU TOO CAN BE A STAR Here's your chance to be part of the "Bermuda Grace'' action.

Just show up for an audition at Number One Shed at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday, when assistant director Mr. Rupert Ryle-Hodges will be looking for actors in featured roles, walk-ons and extras.

The message from the film team is: "Come exactly as you are. It would be great to have a big turn-out.'' It happened in 1977, when the film "The Deep'' displayed the Island's charms to the world's movie-goers. It happened in 1979, when a global TV audience saw Gina Swainson crowned Miss World.

In 1993 there could be another of those moments, when Bermuda becomes a household name for millions and the tourism industry reaps a golden harvest of free publicity.

The media event this time is "Bermuda Grace'', a $3.5 million primetime TV movie which starts filming on the Island in the next few weeks.

It will be shown later this year in the US, UK and Canada. And if it grabs a big enough audience, then TV chiefs plan to follow up with a major series, filming up to 22 hour-long episodes a year for the next five years.

For several key members of the mainly-British crew, the 25-day shoot in Bermuda will be a return visit, for they were last here filming "The Deep''.

"Bermuda Grace'' producer Miss Christabel Albery is glad of the coincidence.

"It just happened to be lucky that a number of the people we felt were right for the job had worked on that film,'' she said.

The London-based freelance is in the Island with an advance team from the project, checking out locations, making contacts and preparing for the start of filming.

In her team are "the Wills'', writing duo Mr. Will Osborne and Mr. Will Davies, who have a clutch of hit Hollywood films behind them.

They came up with "Bermuda Grace'' about five years ago, after seeing a tourism ad for the Island, and took it to the English station London Weekend Television.

In a transatlantic tie-up not seen since the cult 60s show "The Avengers'', LWT joined forces with a Canadian company and sold "Bermuda Grace'' to giant networks NBC in America and ITV in Britain.

"It's the story of an American detective who is worldweary and has seen enough of police work,'' said Miss Albery.

"A crime is committed from a hotel room in Philadelphia - although we film in Toronto - and the room is booked in the name of a man who lives in Bermuda.

"His Police captain gives him a break and tells him to go and have a nice time in Bermuda.

"He meets up with an English detective in the Bermuda Police, who's there to help him solve the case.'' The crime-solving involves "a number of exciting things'', she said. But she stressed the movie would be witty, like the vintage cop show "The Rockford Files'', rather than action-packed like "Miami Vice''.

"There's a strong feeling amongst all the people who developed it that that is the last thing they wanted. It's much more about the relationship and the difference between England and America.'' The movie team have had their way smoothed by local VIPs.

"We've had the most enormous amount of help from the Premier and the Government, and particularly the Tourism Ministry,'' she said. "We could not have had more help.

"We're working very closely with the Police here -- they have been enormously helpful as well.'' But what has really stunned the team is Bermuda's beauty.

"It's absolute heaven. We've found the most wonderful locations, and we could not have been luckier with the willingness of people to allow us to use their property.

"Bermuda has more to offer than most places I can think of in the world in terms of visual interest -the different colours of the houses, the water, the roads.

"Originality is something that is very seldom available on film.'' Bermudian cricket, yachts and beautiful people on beautiful beaches will soon be on millions of TV screens.

The inner workings of The Royal Gazette could also be exposed.

Sam Grace, the US cop, is played by Bill Sadler, whose films include "Trespass'', "Rush'', "Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey'' and "Die Hard II''.

He has also acted in the New York Shakespeare Festival, and appeared in TV shows like "Roseanne'', "Tales from the Crypt'' and "In the Heat of the Night''.

English comic actor David Harewood, who plays the young British cop, was recently seen in the movie "Hawk'', and in top British TV shows like "The Bill'', "Casualty'' and "Minder''.

A crucial role -- a Bermudian woman Sam Grace falls for -- has yet to be cast.

"We hope that whenever we're filming anywhere we don't cause any inconvenience,'' added Miss Albery. "But it's a nice group of people we have brought over, and it'll be quite fun when we're filming and people happen to pass by.'' BERMUDA'S STARRING ROLE -- TV producer Miss Christabel Albery believes the Island's beauty will shine through the new movie "Bermuda Grace''.