Life is pretty good for Sarah Michelle Gellar right now. Not only does
her hit show, Buffy TheVampire Stayer, enter its fifth series this month
on Sky One, with plenty of new adventures for the butt-
kicking blonde bombshell, but she’s also stardng in two new films
(The It Girl and Harvard Man, both due
out later this year). Fans will be excited to learn the new series promises
lots more karate-kicking, vampire-vanquishing adventures. Having survived
her first year at college without
succumbing to either vampires or bad grades, thesophomore Buffster faces
up, once again, to the evil
onslaught that erupts from the He]lmouth.There’s also an unexpected
additon to the gang with
the appearance of Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg, who’s starred in
Inspector Gadget), who is believed to be Buffys younger sister and Bully
can look forward to an encounter with the most notorious vampire of
all — Count Dracuia. The ongoing popularity of Buffy doesn’t
surprise Gellar. “Female fans enjoy the show because they can relate
to Bnffy — she’s OK with who she is,” says the 23-year-old
star. “That’s the most important lesson we need to learn in
our formative years — that it’s OK to be
you. Guys see her as a take-charge, kick-ass girl who has never lost
her femininity. The ones who are threatened by that don’t watch
the show.’
Buffy’s boy
And to top it all, her love life is blooming, too — she’s
been seeing fellow actor Freddie Prinze Jr since last
March (they met on the set of teen slasher flick I Know What You Did
Last Summer). First spotted in a clinch in a Malibu restaurant, they
went public’ when they were seen at the 2000 MTV Movie Awards together,and
soon after Freddie confirmed that they were an item in an interview
on MW
Sarah prefers to keep a low profile, however. ‘it’s a lot
of work to keep a relationship private, and unfortu-
nately it puts a strain on them, but That’s the way I choose to
do it. The last thing that I want to do is read about it, or have other
people making judgemerits. Sarah and Prinze Jr will star as junior detectives
Daphne and Fred in a remake of the much-loved Seventies cartoon show
Scooby Doo next month. And
Gellers skills in hunting down ghouis and vampires may well come in
useful. As for her hit show, it’s been
reported that Sarah may hang up her garlic in the not-too-distant-future“1
love my job but I only have a year to go with Buffy. It’s time
to move onto more adult stuff
But what of Buffy’s true love — Angel? David Boreanaz is also
back with a second series of Angel,
the spin-off from Buffy. with co-star Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter)
to help him in his fight against
inner and outer demons. Angel was always intended to be darker than
Buffy.
but David’s 240-year-old vampire already has his fair share of
fans. “I get letters inviting me to vampire
dinners in Transylvania,” he says. And despite their onscreen romance,
rumours about off-set dalliances
between Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar are dismissed out-of-hand
by the actress, who brands the
allegations a “complete fallacy. In fact, everyone on the Buffy
set was laughing about the idea of David
and me as a couple.”
David is also set to star in his first major film, which is due out
in the States on 14 February. In Valentine. Boreanaz plays a college
nerd who sets out, 10 years on, to wreak revenge on four boys who torment-
ed him with practical jokes at college.
Angelic upstarts
In the second genes of Angel. he has just as much evil-induced mayhem
to contend with as
Buffy. Watch out for the dirty- dealing law firm Wolfram and Hart —
the Underworld’s
own attorneys — who raise the dead Dada (the vampire who sired
Angel) to inflict
fresh torment on him. As for any continuing signs of romance between
him and Buffy,
“1 don’t think you’ve heard the last of that, but right
now they need their space,” he says.
