LAS VEGAS (Variety) - Although ``Sabrina'' was Greg Kinnear's feature film debut, co-workers say the mischievous TV talker performed like an experienced pro during filming of the film, in which he played fun-loving, smooth-talking playboy David Larrabee.

``He's fabulous -- especially with this being his first movie. There was no sign of that,'' points out Paramount executive VP of production Michelle Manning. ``He's the real thing.... He was just a joy to work with, especially when you consider he was doing two jobs at once.''

Co-star Julia Ormond says that if Kinnear felt any nervousness during filming, he never showed it. ``He kept all of that very hidden,'' she says. ``He just got on with it. He worked very hard to get it right.

Greg coped with the pressure of it all brilliantly. He got the wit in the character, but he also managed to get a certain amount of depth that was required for David. He pitched it right.''

The film's director and co-producer, Sydney Pollack -- the man who took the biggest gamble in casting first-timer Kinnear -- is extremely pleased about the way the gamble paid off.

``He was very, very good,'' Pollack says, praising Kinnear's work as ``particularly skillful for someone doing (a film) for the first time.''

In particular, Pollack cites Kinnear's intuition and his ``good actor's intelligence.''

``I think he has a good barometer already about what's truthful behavior in imaginary circumstances and what isn't,'' Pollack says. ``Greg has a good sense of how to listen to the other actors.''

Ormond and others also praise Kinnear for his charm, charisma and ability to take a joke, especially the one Harrison Ford played on him the first day of the shoot.

As Ormond recalls it, a nervous Kinnear worriedly asked Ford if it was OK to chew gum on the job, and Ford gave him the go-ahead.

``He said, 'No, no, it's fine, do whatever you want,''' Ormond relates. ``They get out in front of the crew. Both were standing slightly stiffly. Sydney said, 'Action.'''

But then, Ford acted kind of like a school kid tattling on his classmate, and laughingly ratted on Kinnear, reporting his chewing-gum offense to Pollack.

``It sort of set up and established the relationship between them,'' Ormond explains. ``They were kind of like a double act. Harrison figured out very soon that Greg is not someone to be treated carefully just because it was his first job.''

Ormond, who played pool with Kinnear between takes, says her co-star has ``a very comedic take on life. He's a lot of fun, very entertaining and engaging.''

In fact, it was Kinnear's little comedy bit poking fun at his hard-to-manage haircut on a ``Talk Soup'' episode that first gave Pollack the off-the-wall idea of casting the TV host in ``Sabrina.''

``He had a particular sense of reality in (that),'' Pollack recalls. ``He did that with such a sense of truth and reality that I was encouraged that he might possibly be able to act.

``I had an instinct about (Greg),'' says Pollack, who admits that casting Kinnear was a risky choice. ``There was something warm and likable about him. The truth of the matter is it was a gamble. It was a gamble that worked.''

LAS VEGAS (Variety) - The purpose of talent agents, obviously, is to tout the talents of their clients. They do so regardless of how they personally feel about their clients' personalities or idiosyncrasies.

But Greg Kinnear's representatives, who assisted his sudden rise from TV talkshow host to movie star in 1995, seem just as eager to commend their client's personality as his talent.

Listen, for instance, to William Morris vice president Greg Lipstone, who first saw Kinnear when the soon-to-be-rising star was doing the short-lived Fox TV show ``The Best of the Worst."

``I felt there was something that was endearing about him,'' observes Lipstone, who has been working with Kinnear for more than three years. ``He was very comfortable in front of the camera. He has a great presence.''

Lipstone helped Kinnear land his ``Later With Greg Kinnear'' show on NBC, after the actor left his previous representatives, Ken Lindner & Associates.

Equally effusive is William Morris senior vice president Fred Westheimer, who has helped guide Kinnear into the world of motion pictures.

``He's very committed,'' says Westheimer. ``He's extremely professional. He's extremely prepared. He's very gifted. He has a certain kind of charm that translates well onscreen.''

Both agents agree that ``Sabrina'' has ``completely launched'' Kinnear as an actor. ``It made people in the industry completely aware of him,'' West--heimer says. ``It also broadened his base in terms of the public.''

Certainly, Kinnear has been keeping both agents busy. In fact, according to Westheimer, the actor has remained ``very committed to his 'Later' show,'' for which he has a five-year contract.

``It's something, even at this point, with all the activity in the film area, he's being very true to and honoring,'' Westheimer says.

Meanwhile, NBC brass have been very supportive of his budding movie career. ``They want him, I'm sure, to be successful, and that successful impact carries over to his show,'' Westheimer adds.

Now it's just a question of figuring out what movie roles work best. ``He's not interested in doing one movie and calling it a day,'' Westheimer says.

``Quite a few offers have come in,'' adds the agent, who recently made the deal for Kinnear's latest film part, a starring role opposite Laurie Metcalf in the $25 million ``Dear God.''

Directed by Garry Marshall and scripted by Warren Leight, the movie begins shooting March 12 in Los Angeles.

With Kinnear's second movie already under way, both agents predict/hope/plan for a blossoming career for the actor.

``There's a marvelous future there,'' Lipstone predicts.

LAS VEGAS (Variety) - It all began with a lousy haircut.

Out of the blue, Greg Kinnear's film career was catapulted by a latenight TV bit he did poking fun at his own unmanageable mane.

Noted director-producer Sydney Pollack -- desperate for a charming actor to portray the rakish David Larrabee in his remake of the 1954 Billy Wilder classic ``Sabrina'' -- saw Kinnear's routine and was impressed enough to do what many thought unthinkable at the time -- give Kinnear, who had no film experience whatsoever, a shot at a starring role in a major studio film.

Kinnear, at that time best known for his eyebrow-lifting routines during his stint as host and executive producer of NBC's ``Later'' and as the former host of E!'s witty ``Talk Soup'' program, still marvels at the sequence of events that led to his newfound status as movie actor.

``I was stunned when I got a call that Sydney Pollack wanted a meeting with me. I didn't have any idea why. I assumed he needed an appliance fixed in his office,'' quips Kinnear, who has since received acclaim for his portrayal of Harrison Ford's breezy younger brother in ``Sabrina.''

Kinnear insists he was stunned yet again when he learned he had been selected as NATO/ShoWest's 1996 male star of tomorrow.

``I thought, 'Yeah, right.' That was my initial response,'' he admits. ``I hadn't been so shocked since I received the call from Sydney that I was going to play David Larrabee. It was very welcome. I couldn't ask for nicer acknowledgement on my first film.''

The busy 32-year-old Kinnear hasn't had much time to ponder his new success.

He only recently returned from a two-month ``Sabrina'' press tour for which, he admits, he was totally unprepared. ``I granted as many as 65 interviews a day at five minutes a pop,'' he says. ``It was absolutely amazing. I have a newfound respect and sympathy for the people who come onto my (TV) program.''

By now, the latenight talkshow host has himself appeared on all the requisite talkshows to promote ``Sabrina.'' And the new film star still retains the down-to-earth quality, ready wit and self-deprecating humor that has endeared him to TV viewers for years.

For example, he insists uncooperative hair really is one of his biggest problems in life.

``It never falls right,'' he whines good-naturedly. ``It's in my face. It falls down. It's sticking up. It's an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. It never behaves the way hair should behave.''

Kinnear's career, on the other hand, is falling nicely into place. In fact, come March 12, Kinnear starts shooting his next bigscreen role in Paramount's ``Dear God,'' which also stars Laurie Metcalf.

``I star as God -- me and George Burns,'' he says, before launching into a proper explanation about the Garry Marshall-directed film, which is written by Warren Leight and produced by Steve Tisch. ``I play a bad con man who finally gets his day in court.''

In the film, a judge gives him the ultimatum of going to jail or getting a job in a work-release program. The only place he can secure a job is in the Post Office's ``dead letters department,'' where letters to Santa Claus, Elvis and God are sent.

There, he becomes involved with a group of misfits. He and a former workaholic attorney, played by Metcalf, begin answering people's letters to the Almighty, Kinnear explains, noting that his character slowly becomes charitable and altruistic, helping those who are down and out.

Ultimately, a media frenzy results and Kinnear's character ends up in more trouble than when he started.

Not only is Kinnear now a hot movie commodity, but his ``Later'' show continues to attract viewers on NBC. The half-hour show features an in-depth interview with a single guest, along with the TV host's inimitable videologue, where he comments on video clips taken from news events of the day.

Occasionally, light-hearted segments relating to the guest also are included.

Kinnear says his bosses at NBC have been cooperative about letting him bank segments in advance to accommodate his filming schedule. ``They've been really open to me exploring the whole movie avenue,'' he says.

Of course, success has come with a price -- more media exposure than Kinnear might like. In fact, he was chagrined last summer upon reading in the Los Angeles Times about his purchase of a $1.4 million, 5,000-square-foot, four-bedroom Mediterranean villa in the Hollywood Hills, complete with courtyard spa, black-bottom pool, fountain and outdoor fireplace.

``I was holed up inside my house,'' he says of the day the article appeared. ``It was the first time anything had been written about me that was personal.''

Of course, Kinnear is accustomed to poking fun at others' personal quirks and foibles.

While hosting E! Entertainment Television's ``Talk Soup'' for three years, he provided a steady stream of amusing commentary, disbelieving looks and his trademark eyebrow-raise while showing clips from most of the major daytime talkshows.

``Oprah was the only one smart enough to know what I was up to,'' he says, explaining why clips of her show were never shown on ``Talk Soup.''

Kinnear's broadcast career dates to his high school days in Athens, Greece, when he hosted a show on Armed Forces Radio called ``School Daze With Greg Kinnear.'' He went on to earn a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Arizona, and upon graduating, moved to Los Angeles, where he got a job at a low-budget film company.

From there, he went to Movietime, then a fledgling cable channel, where he hosted a variety of segments.

When HBO took over Movietime and renamed it E!, Kinnear was tapped to host ``The HBO International Report.'' During that time, he also did some acting, landing parts in the telefilm ``Murder in Mississippi'' and the series ``Life Goes On.''

Then in 1991, Kinnear co-created and executive produced a short-lived series for Fox called ``The Best of the Worst,'' a reality-based comedy that profiled the worst jobs, movies and TV shows.

From there, E! asked him to host a show it was developing called ``Talk Soup.'' After three years there, he left to devote more time to NBC's ``Later With Greg Kinnear,'' where he is now starting his third year. ``Talk Soup'' remains on the air, with John Henson taking over from Kinnear as host.

Just for the record, to get that proper expression of bemused skepticism that viewers frequently saw on ``Talk Soup,'' did Kinnear ever sit in front of the mirror and practice raising his eyebrow?

``Not a chance,'' he says. ``If you really sit back and watch one of those cross-dressing hermaphrodite nuns, trust me, your eyebrows will raise in exactly the same way.''