Hang On, Does Sarah Michelle Gellar Have Queer Cruel Intentions Fan Art in Her Home?

There were only a handful of ways to become a lesbian in the 1990s and one of them was to watch Sarah Michelle Gellar and Selma Blair kiss with slow, deliberate, casual longing in the 1999 cult classic Cruel Intentions. You know the scene: SMG’s Kathryn is trying to get Selma Blair’s Cecile to loosen up, so she takes her on a picnic to Central Park, tells her to close her eyes, and smooches her right on the mouth. The kiss won a GOAT Kiss Award at the MTV Movie Awards in 2020 and the two of them have re-enacted and talked about a lot since it happened. Like, a lot. Like, I am 100% positive Sarah Michelle Gellar has given more press to that kiss over the last two decades than she has to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Selma Blair has said it was “delicious” about a dozen times, and that, actually, Cecile wanted to keep on kissing. (Probably would have worked out better for everyone in that movie, if they did.)

Anyway, Friday night I was winding down from the week, scrolling Instagram in a steamy bubble bath, when I came across a post on Selma Blair’s Instagram talking about the matching rings she and SMG got for SMG’s birthday. And there, on the wall behind them, that kiss! Fan art of the kiss! An oil painting fan art of that 20-year-old kiss! Or, well, the scene leading up to the kiss — with Cecile’s lips all puckered up. My wife and I don’t even have a photo of ourselves acting that gay on our own walls in our own home!

Look at this:

I thought at first they were at Selma Blair’s house, but then she said in a follow-up comment that the “paintings” were “a thrill to see” — so I guess: a) there’s more than one of these paintings, and b) they’re not in Selma Blair’s house but in Sarah Michelle Gellar’s house???

I mean, okay, even if it’s not in one of their houses, this is how Sarah Michelle Gellar spent her birthday: touring a place that has gay art of her and her best friend hanging on the wall. I’m not saying they’re gay, but I am saying they cannot stop talking about tonguing each other. Some commenter Harry Hill, who has the occupation “vibe creator,” said this piece belongs in the Louvre, and I’ve got to agree with him about that.

If you’re wondering if Cruel Intentions lesbian-ed you you can always take Riese’s Which ’90s Movie Made You Gay quiz and find out. I got A League of Their Own as my quiz answer and I bet you ten dollars that Geena Davis doesn’t have some oil paintings of Madonna getting ready to smooch her hanging on her walls.

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1718 articles for us.

7 Comments

  1. This is a painting by Sam McKinness, c/o Jeffery Deitch Gallery in LA. They aren’t at anyone’s house, they are at the gallery for an exhibition called “Luncheon on the Grass: Contemporary Responses to Édouard Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe”

    More info here! https://www.instagram.com/p/CcWk4U8lql5/
    I only know this because I recognized it from when the show opened.

  2. Ha, I just finished watching this movie for the second time in my life a couple of days ago. The 90s were a shit show. Great movie though. Can we put this into like the “erotic camp” category, cause that’s what is was giving me (it’s a shame about the problematic encounters between Phillipe and Blair in the movie).

  3. I do like that they hang out looking at gay art of themselves. Just gals being pals! (and maybe it’s time to rewatch that movie.)

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