Buffy Goes Romantic

With her vampire-slaying replacement now confirmed, Sarah Michelle Gellar is ditching the old stake through the heart schtick for some heartbreaking of another kind by preparing to star in a romantic comedy – with not a hell's mouth or slice of garlic to be seen. In final negotiations to topline the rather unimaginatively entitled Romantic Comedy, Gellar is throwing off the Buffy vibe and cannily developing her film career by choosing what must surely be her natural habitat, the rom-com. Proven as both a sympathetic comedy actress for the girls and not unimpressive piece of eye candy for the boys, Gellar is lined up to play Kate, a translator at the United Nations, who remains blissfully unaware her best friend of 15 years, Max, fancies her rotten. That is, until he starts to imitate the best tricks of rom-coms past to declare his love and sweep her off her feet. You certainly can't accuse her not of doing the legwork to get to this enviable position of hand-picking her projects. Let alone accomplishing umpteen Buffy episodes, Gellar's put in time as the perky blonde victim twice before in Scream 2 and I Know What You Did Last Summer, and even gamely lined herself up for the sequel to Scooby-Doo. And for that, she surely deserves some romantic recompense.