Angel

BUFFY’S BACK...WELL, SORT OF

Back of her head? Why even bother?

THE only bit of Buffy the vampire slayer anyone is going to get to see for a long time is the back of her head.

For months, speculation and hopes have been running high that the Buffy character, Sarah Michelle Gellar (news), would make a return for the series finale of "Angel," the supernatural series that was spun off from her harrowing show, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Now we know the answer, sort of.

On this week’s episode of "Angel," Buffy makes a return that is so fleeting, we can’t see her face. And with good reason. It’s not Gellar.

The show’s two main characters - Angel, the vampire with a soul who fell in love with Buffy, and Spike, a longtime Buffy rival turned lover - head to Rome to find their lost love, last seen during the series finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" last spring.

Buffy, it seems, has moved to Italy with her younger sister, Dawn, but both may be under the influence of an evil demon called, The Immortal.

But the closest they come to finding Buffy is by being two steps behind her in a dance club.

Why bother to write Buffy into the script if they couldn’t get Gellar? Show officials declined to elaborate.

It certainly was possible to digitally insert Buffy, as "The Sopranos" did with Nancy Marchand (news) - who played a key role as Tony Soprano’s mother - when the actress died before the cable series’ second season was finished filming.

But it appears producers want to give the show’s rabid fans - who have been pining - one last reunion.

"Angel" has only two episodes to go, before the show wraps up its five-year run.

Producers had issued a standing invitation for Gellar to return for one of the final shows - just as David Boreanaz (news), the actor who plays the hapless Angel, turned up briefly on "Buffy" near the end of that series last year.

But Gellar, citing a scheduling conflict with a film she was working on in Japan, said she could only make it back to the U.S. in time to appear in the series finale of "Angel."

The show’s creator, Joss Whedon, nixed Gellar’s offer late last month.

But Buffy and crew might not be gone forever.

WB officials and Whedon are said to be mulling the possibility of a "Buffy" or "Angel" movie to air on the network in the future.