I am – Hercules!!
Reports are showering in from Thursday night’s Paley Fest “Buffy” reunion at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. A MOVIE? “My answer would be there are so many stars that have to align,” series mastermind Joss Whedon said from the stage. “But, y'know, there's a reason I worked with these people for so long. Clearly from the comic it's a story I can't let go. I think it would be cool. [...] If I had to shoot down everything I'm doing in comics because we were doing a project -- a film with these actual people -- I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep.” SEASON SIX? “It was definitely tough for me,” said series star Sarah Michelle Gellar. “It's so hard to separate myself from [Buffy Summers]. So it was tough for me to sort of see these situations and thought that 'Buffy wouldn't do this' and I felt pressure from the voice of the fans. I know Joss and [season-six showrunner Marti Noxon] particularly talked me down from the ledge a couple of times. “It just felt so far removed from me at the time. And maybe that was the point - I was just struggling the same way that she was struggling to find who she was. It just felt so boring to me.” “I do remember there was an actual day when I said to Marti, ‘OK, you know what, I think Buffy's been gone for too long,’” added Whedon. “‘We've lost her and it's time now to win her back.’ And then [Gellar] had a conversation with Marti on the exact same day.” “Yeah, I remember that day too,” said Noxon. “It was a day when everybody kind of thought, ‘Okay, we've reached the bottom of the pool, it's time to surface.’” SEASON EIGHT? Gellar said she learned only moments before she came onstage that Buffy, in the latest issue of her “Season Eight” comic book, had taken a lesbian slayer to her bed. When moderator Matt Roush asked Whedon if Angel or Spike was Buffy’s true love, cast member Nicholas Brendon answered, "Well, given the comic book, I think Willow." It turned out to be a Big Event, muchly covered: Listen to the entire event here. (It starts after a musical intro of almost two minutes.) You can read a recap from TV Guide’s Michael Ausiello here. The “Pink Is The New Blog” website has many nifty photos here. E!'s Wanda Two Saints conducts backstage video interviews with Gellar, Charisma Carpenter, Seth Green and Michelle Tractenberg here. “Manchoy” sent into AICN the longest spy recap so far:

Hey Hercules, With tickets going at $1,600 a pair on EBay last night’s Buffy panel at Paleyfest was THE events of the fest. Even the Rep from the Paley Center joked she wasn’t sure SHE was going to get a ticket. It was tough draw to get tickets even for the members this year. I have been going to these for the last five years and was lucky enough to get in there and score some good seats. One set of fans in the stand-by line waited from 9:00 PM the night before for ticket cancellations, when they did get in they were greeted by the house with cheers. The night started off with Marti Noxin introducing the screening. Joss wasn’t in the house yet, he was finishing up a shoot on new project – “Mr Horrible’s Singing Blog” or something like that, which was fitting because they screened the Buffy Musical “Once More With Feeling”. There wasn’t a lot of sing along but the audience applauded at the end of every musical number. One of the great things about the Paleyfest is seeing an episode like this in a big crowd of fans reacting to every scene. The sound was great but the video image was a little grainy blown up that huge – but no one seemed to care. Tim Rausch from TV Guide was the evening’s moderator. He talked about how difficult it was at the start of Buffy (1997) to describe it to people – and maybe his best line that night was coining it Beverly Hills 9210-666. Not all of the advertised guests were there but we did get Joss Whedon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caufield, Amber Benson, Seth Green, Marti Noxin, Charisma Carpenter, James Marsters, Michelle Trachenberg, and David Greenwalt. And there were more cast and crew members in the audience including Jane Espenson and Tom Lenk. No big revelations except that Gellar had just found out that night about her same sex romance in the season eight comics. Unlike the Chuck panel, the cast here were not high on the geek scale – well maybe with the exception of Seth Green. Joss was asked if he would consider doing a stand alone Buffy movie or Broadway musical and he was ready if the “stars” all aligned. When the panel was asked if they would all come along only a few - Charisma and Sarah - weren’t popping their hands up. One of the audience questions was about what were the cast’s favorite movies and what was on their Ipods. This took up a lot of time and pissed some people off but it gave us a slightly different take than the normal questions. The signing frenzy at the end went as expected. The crowds swarmed, security stood in place, and the cast did what theycould to get to a huge number of fans.

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