PLUGGED IN : When It Comes to Lancome, She’s Fearless

The practice is shameless and somewhat sneaky, but it must amuse someone (presumably the filmmakers themselves).

We’re talking, of course, of product placement in movies--not Taco Bell in “Demolition Man,” but rather, the more subtle kind.

Current illustration: the jars of Lancome makeup creams seen atop Isabella Rossellini’s bedroom bureau in “Fearless.” The labels may be turned halfway around, yet there’s no denying the line’s trademark milk-glass color, squat shape and gray-banded lids. Rossellini, who plays Jeff Bridges’ suffering wife in the Warner Bros. picture, pitches the Lancome line for the multimillion-dollar Paris-based company.

Future illustration: the marquee of New York’s Waverly Theater in MGM’s upcoming Christmas release, “Six Degrees of Separation.” Near the end of the film, Will Smith is led by police out of the theater, which just happens to be playing a double-bill of two other MGM movies, last spring’s “Benny & Joon” with the just-opened “Fatal Instinct.”

After all, there’s always the video market to consider.