Feast of Blair: fashion icon Selma Blair reminds us that she knows how to kiss a girl.

IF SELMA BLAIR'S ONLY contribution to lesbian culture were her slurpy, sizzling kiss with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the 1999 film Cruel Intentions, it would have been plenty. But now Blair, who's 35 but easily passes for a decade younger, goes even more gay--this rime in a story of several fairy tale-ish romances Feast of Love. She plays Kathryn, ali innocent young wife who takes one gauzy look at Jenny a lithesome softball shortstop (Stana Katic), and--next thing you know--she's a lesbo. We caught up with the very funny and amiable Blair by phone from Budapest, where she's shooting Hellboy 2, a film in which her character has pyrokinetic abilities: Don't make her mad or she'll start a fire with her mind. But then again, we already knew she was hot.

In Feast of Love you and Jenny get together at the very beginning of the movie--but then disappear from the story.

I was aware it was pretty fleeting, but I really wanted to work with [director] Robert Benton, and I thought it was a lovely relationship to highlight in all these stories of love.

You capture the thrill and ambivalence of a young woman discovering her true self.

It was my impression that Kathryn had never thought of [being with] a woman--as a girlfriend, as a lover, as someone who could be her mate--until this woman looked her in the eyes.

There's a scene where you and Stana are lying intimately together and then kiss--how easy was it to pull off?

To me, it was nothing but getting to kiss a lovely, soft pair of lips again. Stana was very nervous, though, because she had never kissed a girl. We rehearsed it once with Robert in the room and really went at it, and I think he was a little mortified for us--that we were kissing for so long. But I think he wanted to make sure she wasn't going to go like "Ewww, gross, girls!" And it was nice. She was lovely. It was far easier than kissing a guy on-screen. For one, you get the guy's scruff all over, and it ruins your makeup. With a girl, her skin is all soft, like a little apricot. So no damage is done!

I read that you were also more comfortable doing that kiss in Cruel Intentions than Sarah Michelle Gellar was.

I grew up with sisters, so they were the first people I touched tongues with. Your sister is your best friend, and you're like, "I dare you to touch my tongue!" So when the time came to kiss Sarah, and I was playing such an innocent character, it just felt like an extension of that.

And there was so much tongue in the kiss with Sarah.

My mother said, "Selma, honestly, do you use that much tongue?" Then I thought about it--Oh, my God, I might really be the aggressive one! I can't wait around for someone else's tongue! [Laughs] I think I may be a bit greedy that way.

Besides being a "greedy" kisser, you're considered a fashion icon.

I basically dress, for a premiere or something, how my mother taught me, which is pretty conservative. I know what I like, but I don't really know what's in fashion. But it's very flattering that people would give me that title of fashion icon. Certainly, when I take the garbage out in the morning, I look anything but.

You can set yourself on fire in Hellboy--what part of yourself do you share with that character?

I think she is very quick to ignite--literally and emotionally--and I can do that. It kind of comes out of nowhere, and I just flare up. I think she's very sarcastic and has a very dry wit, and I think because I'm a monotone girl, people think I'm also very dry. But I'm really just from the Midwest and have no inflection, so things just come out dry.

You're divorced from Ahmet Zappa and seeing actor-model Matt Felker. Did I read a rumor that you're headed down the matrimonial aisle again?

Not at all.

Not until same-sex marriage is legal, right?

Exactly! [Laughs] Like the government is going to give a shit if Selma Blair wants to get married or not. I think it's a really nice sentiment when people say that, but I'm like, "Really? I doubt we're that important." But sure, I'll say that.