Mirror, Mirror, on the Small Screen : ‘Law & Order’ is the latest project to take delight in exposing Hollywood foibles.

Hollywood occasionally contributes to its own image problems, presenting fictional portraits in movies such as “The Player” and “Swimming With Sharks” that feed perceptions that the place can’t be found with a moral compass.

Recently, such depictions have begun to emanate from the small screen, such as last season’s Hollywood-murder plot in the ABC drama “Murder One” and now NBC’s “Law & Order,” with a three-episode story being showcased in “ER’s” time slot.

That plot, which concludes tonight, has followed the investigation of the murder of a decapitated movie executive from New York to Los Angeles, implicating a personal trainer and then the victim’s ex-husband, a movie director, in the murder.

Along the way, viewers have been treated to a sordid and often comical glimpse into a world where drug rehabilitation is status quo, Oscar promotional cassettes fill trash bins behind a studio, tyrannical guards won’t let people on studio lots even with passes, and prima donna directors bring agents and publicists to a police interview.

Despite how cutting these programs have been, however, most people in the business not only recognize such industry quirks but seem to savor seeing a mirror held up to them.

“It was so dead-on, I found it incredibly amusing,” Alan Spencer, the producer of such series as “Sledge Hammer!,” said of the “Law & Order” episodes. “With them doing a pilot of ‘The Player,’ I don’t know how they could compete with this. . . . It’s the best indictment of Hollywood I’ve seen in years.”

ABC is doing a pilot based on Robert Altman’s 1992 film “The Player,” about a slimy movie studio executive. It’s one of several new series hopefuls set around the entertainment industry.

NBC is developing “Lateline,” which spoofs a “Nightline”-type news program, plus a sitcom in which MTV’s Jenny McCarthy plays a celebrity’s assistant. At Fox, “Automatic Avenue” goes behind the scenes of a TV cop show.

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Those who write and create programs insist that the idea of providing a backstage view of show business is less significant than the material’s quality and how it’s handled. They also point to a savvy public, now inundated with print and television coverage of the industry’s inner workings.

In the case of “Law & Order,” the master stroke involved approaching Hollywood through the jaundiced eyes of New York cops and district attorneys.

“People always say that Hollywood doesn’t work [commercially], but you wrap a good mystery around it and all of a sudden it does,” said Dick Wolf, the show’s executive producer.

“Everyone working on this show has been in the industry a long time. It’s not a question of biting the hand that feeds you. It’s trying to portray that underlying attitude that we’ve all witnessed . . . that sort of weird entitlement made manifest in these three episodes. It’s based on the realities we all deal with.”

David Burke, whose writing credits include “Wiseguy” and “seaQuest DSV” as well as the “Automatic Avenue” pilot, agreed that Hollywood can use such periodic broadsides.

“Our perception of ourselves is so skewed, we all need a good thrashing,” he said. Burke noted that characters on “Law & Order” are befuddled by “that arrogant air of royalty that’s almost common here.”

While there’s some pleasure in skewering the industry, writers offer a more pragmatic explanation for choosing such a target--namely, its familiarity.

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In producing CBS’ short-lived series “Almost Perfect,” Robin Schiff could mine first-hand experience--writing a sitcom that focused on a woman trying to balance a personal life and running a TV show.

“The fun thing was we could vent,” she said, citing an episode where the producers sweat out whether the fictitious show would be renewed, just as she and her partners did last year.

Schiff added that negative Hollywood images such as those shown in “Law & Order” the last few weeks have more to do with good fiction than tweaking the industry.

“You see why they went that way because it’s more entertaining,” she said. “There are directors who don’t have that [entourage], but that’s not as interesting.”

Despite the biting humor featured in some of these movies and TV shows, few anticipate any lingering ill will. For all its failings, those in Hollywood seem able to laugh at themselves--perhaps in some instances because those lampooned don’t always recognize when they’re the butt of a joke.

“Nobody looks at it and says, ‘That’s me,’ ” Schiff noted. “They say, ‘It’s that other [jerk].’ ”

“People have been calling and saying, ‘I know who that is,’ ” Wolf said with a laugh regarding the “Law & Order” episodes, which have drawn more attention--and higher ratings--because of the Thursday time period. “It truly is a work of fiction, but there are a lot of identifiable characteristics of people [in the business] that people on the show have had experiences with.”

* “Law & Order” airs at 10 tonight on NBC (Channel 4).