Best of Intentions: Adult Time Revives Vivid With ‘A Cruel Bet’

Above, Whitney Wright and Abigail Mac. For more on-the-set photos, click here.Those who were coming of age in the late ’90s are more than a little apt to have two particular common reference points perennially socked away in their collective spank bank: Vivid movies and that scene in teen sex dramedy Cruel Intentions where Sarah Michelle Gellar makes out with Selma Blair in Central Park.Now, new Gamma Entertainment master hub Adult Time brings both of those masturbatory treasures back to the fore with its first offering under the freshly resuscitated Vivid imprint (which it recently acquired), the featurette A Cruel Bet: A Cruel Intentions Parody.With two of AVN’s 2019 Female Performer of the Year contenders—Abigail Mac and Whitney Wright—stepping into the respective roles portrayed in the original by Gellar and Blair, AVN Hall of Fame director Craven Moorehead took on the task of meticulously recreating that iconic scene, and we had the good fortune of being there to witness it.Every detail, from the girls’ outfits to their various picnic trappings to the shade of their lipstick, is matched with uncanny precision. And one in particular becomes the MUST CAPTURE grace note to the entire scene: the delicate spiderweb of spittle that stretches between the two girls’ bottom lips as they pull away from their second, deep kiss … or the “stringer,” as Moorehead christens is.Accomplishing this isn’t as easy as it sounds, and the light is rapidly beginning to fade over the grassy shoot location, imbuing the proceedings with an acute sense of urgency. Having shot several takes, Mac and Wright have pulled off some very nice kisses … but failed to yet produce a stringer.“The stringer’s amazing, I don’t think we want to superimpose it later,” Moorehead frets.They go for a fourth try, and still their saliva won’t cooperate.“The light’s gonna change on us fast now,” stresses director of photography Matt Holder—the veteran lensman responsible for the pristinely cinematic look of much of Gamma’s output, including the Joanna Angel-directed A Trailer Park Taboo, which earned him a 2019 AVN nod for Best Cinematography.They decide to give it one more shot … and this time, they score glorious, spittley gold.A rush of excitement surges through cast and crew as they all gather around the monitor to view the stringy magic they just manifested. It’s a blissful moment of moviemaking triumph.From there, it’s inside, where Mac and Wright will be joined by Seth Gamble, in the Ryan Phillippe role, for a step-sibling (natch) devirgining of the young Wright.It’s good to have Vivid back—and with this kind of passion and craftsmanship behind it, we dare say it may just be back better than ever before.A Cruel Bet: A Cruel Intentions Parody is available now on AdultTime.com. And attendees of the AVN Show can check out the Adult Time booth in Muse Hall inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas.