In Kuala Lumpur
A STORY about what would have been Malaysia's first on-screen lesbian kiss got many Malaysians excited today.
The story, in the New Straits Times daily, was entitled "Lesbian kiss sets tongues wagging" and was the paper's most read story online.
The movie, Histeria, is about a group of schoolgirls who are forced to spend a weekend at a haunted hostel block.
The NST quoted one of the so-called lesbian actresses as saying that their "lips touched briefly" and that they had to do two takes to get the shot right.
Perhaps it is only natural that such an unusual and rare sight would have sparked much interest among readers, particularly in mainly-Muslim and conservative Malaysia.
But what made it all the more ironic is that Malaysia's highest Islamic body here recently banned tomboyish behaviour among Muslim females, in an effort to combat lesbianism. Apparently it's becoming a common trend among girls.
In any case it is unlikely that censorship authorities would have allowed such a thing as a lesbian kiss to be screened in Histeria, which opens today at major cinemas nationwide.
They even censor US singer Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" song on the radio, bleeping out the word "girl," so as to avoid putting ideas into the impressionable minds of young girls here.
But the director and producer of the Histeria movie deny that there are any lesbian kissing scenes in the movie.
Gayathri Su-Lynn Pillai, of Tayangan Unggul which produces the movie, told The Straits Times that one of the actresses, who is interested in one of her female friends, leans to that friend and tries to come close for a kiss. But the other girl turns her face away. So there is no kiss.
Director James Lee told The Straits Times that the movie is not even about lesbians per se.
"It is a homage to B-grade horror flicks like Friday the 13th."
So perhaps Malaysian audiences should not get too excited about the alleged lesbian kissing scene.
Or just check out the movie in order to be doubly sure.