LESABRE GETS A LIFT IN 'NEVER BEEN KISSED'

DETROIT -- Buick's full-size LeSabre plays a prominent role as Drew Barrymore's car of choice in the Fox 2000 Pictures film, "Never Been Kissed," which is now playing in theaters nationwide.

"This is a key product placement for LeSabre because it puts our brand squarely in front of a younger and more mainstream audience," said Tom Jump, Buick's director of advertising.

In the film, Barrymore plays Josie Geller, a bright, 25-year-old copy editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. She yearns to be a reporter and her dream becomes a reality when she is assigned to go undercover at a local high school to report on today's teenagers. Suddenly, the former high school nerd -- now eight years senior to the oldest pupil in the class -- must figure out her story while reliving her horrific adolescence and negotiating high school's social and emotional land mines.

So where does Buick fit in all this teen-age angst? Josie drives a Buick LeSabre, which is a respectable car for an up-and-coming young professional but would be a dead giveaway in her undercover assignment. The car is prominently featured in a scene in which she trades it for a clunker owned by her brother Rob, who works at a Tahitian-themed mail outlet. Rob is played by David Arquette, who starred in the teen thrillers "Scream" and "Scream 2."

In the scene, Josie points out that her car is a Buick LeSabre as she tries to convince her brother to make the trade. In a later sequence, the car is seen sporting the logo of the mail outlet as Rob drives by listening to music.

Appealing to a wider audience is one of the goals for the LeSabre, which was completely redesigned for the 2000 model year and is now in dealer showrooms. LeSabre, America's best-selling full-size sedan for the past seven years, has posted more than one million sales in the past eight years.