It's no secret that Hollywood stars have long been raking in bucks -- and yen and lire -- peddling products overseas. But getting a look at these TV spots used to require a passport and a plane ride. Now, thanks to Japander.com, we can view clips of nearly 70 image-conscious entertainers like Harrison Ford, Jennifer Lopez, and Leonardo DiCaprio doing in Japan what they wouldn't be caught dead doing on these shores. Webmaster Al Soiseth, 34, a Saskatchewan native who teaches English in Japan, tapes the ads and dumps them onto the Web.
The spots can be as comical as they are eye-opening: Ford, fresh from the sauna, downs a cool Kirin beer; J. Lo gets away from it all in her Subaru Legacy; Leo settles a restaurant tab with his Orico Card. (He reportedly got $4 million for that two-day shoot.) Given the Net's reach, it was ''inevitable that these ads would be revealed beyond Japanese shores,'' says Soiseth. Thus we're privy to Big Bird and the ''Sesame Street'' gang jubilantly pitching Xerox color printers. At a Denny's somewhere, Miss Piggy is having the last laugh.
