Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson in ECLIPSE: Bella, Edward Kiss

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart kiss: Bella attempts to seduce Edward in David Slade’s The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart’s kiss in the picture above is a consequence of the very human and very, very confused Bella Swan’s attempt to seduce the vampire Edward Cullen in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

In Stephenie Meyer’s novel Bella’s seduction try-out is best described as awkward. Both human and vampire are virgins. She wishes she were a vampire; he wishes he were a human being — or at least something other than a "monster" without a soul. (Edward doesn’t believe vampires have souls.) Reason for all that wishing: Bella and Edward would then be able to remain together forever or at least till death did them part as a united, happy couple.

For the time being, however, they both must face enormous hurdles, from Edward’s decision that they’ll have sex only after marriage to Bella being the target of both a psychopathic vampire (Bryce Dallas Howard) and a lovestruck werewolf (Taylor Lautner), both of whom keep getting in the way of the two lovers.

Needless to say, things don’t go quite as Bella had planned in Meyer’s novel. Despite some extra kissing and lovemaking in the meadow (another Pattinson/Stewart kiss), Bella’s relationship with Edward won’t get all that physically intimate until they get married in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, which should start filming in the fall with Bill Condon at the helm.

No matter how much darker and more daring than Meyer’s bestseller, don’t expect things to proceed any differently in David Slade’s film version of Eclipse, considering that the Summit release adapted by Melissa Rosenberg, who has also handled the adaptation of the original Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon, is PG-13 material. The Motion Picture Association of America’s Classification and Ratings Administration has given Slade’s movie the PG-13 rating for “intense sequences of action and violence, and some sensuality.” After all, Eclipse is a summer movie. A dismemberment or two is allowed, but no hot-and-steamy sex, please.

Breaking Dawn, however bizarre its storyline and events, will surely also be kept tame enough so as to avoid the dreaded R rating that would make it difficult for millions of teenagers to watch the film(s).

Even so, the passionate kiss seen in the picture at the top of this post may earn Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart a Best Kiss nomination for next year’s MTV Movie Awards and People’s Choice Awards. Both Pattinson and Stewart are in the running for this year’s MTV Movie Awards for The Twilight Saga: New Moon, including a nod for their kissing scene in that movie. Stewart’s kissing scene with Dakota Fanning in The Runaways has also earned her a nomination. Stewart, in fact, is up for four MTV Movie Awards; Robert Pattinson is up for three.

Also in the Twilight Saga: Eclipse cast: Kellan Lutz, Xavier Samuel, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Peter Facinelli, Anna Kendrick, Elizabeth Reaser, Gil Birmingham, Kirsten Prout, Jodelle Ferland, Michael Welch, Cameron Bright, and Catalina Sandino Moreno.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse opens in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Argentina, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and about a dozen other countries on June 30.

Photo: Summit Entertainment