Sarah Michelle Gellar, better known to the world as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, got the hankering to spend some time with her fishy friends at Sea World in San Diego, CA this weekend and managed to get in on the act with one of the performers … check out this supercute pic of SMG with her new dolphin friend:

While this pic is prolly the cutest thing ever, there is more important SMG news to impart. HBO has announced that Ms. Gellar has signed on to appear in their new series The Wonderful Maladys which is set to hit the air next year. That’s right folks, SMG is making a return to the small screen:

Sarah Michelle Gellar is eyeing a return to television with a half-hour project set up at HBO from screenwriter Charles Randolph. Set in Gotham, “The Wonderful Maladys” ensembler revolves around the dysfunctional lives of three adult siblings who lost their parents at a young age. Randolph described Gellar’s character as having “a kind of zealous immaturity — like a drug addict with a to-do list.” Randolph wrote the script on spec last year with Gellar and HBO in mind. HBO recently bought the script and is aiming to shoot the single-camera pilot early next year. Gellar and Randolph will serve as exec producers should the project go forward, along with Brillstein Entertainment Partners. “We’re on a fast track,” said Brillstein CEO Jon Liebman. Gellar has focused on features since “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” ended its seven-year run in 2003. She called the chance to do a series with Randolph, Brillstein and HBO “a terrific next chapter for me” … Gellar and Randolph are repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

I hate to say it but, with the way that SMG‘s movie career has been going since her BtVS days, I kinda knew it was only a matter of time before she made a return to the small screen. Taking on this role for HBO is a good step back to TV for her, I think. She can still be challenged in a way that network TV cannot and isn’t faced with the prospect of carrying the entire project on her shoulders alone. I’m all for this … I can’t wait to get SMG back on TV on a weekly basis again.

[Source, Source]

Here are a few pics of Sarah Michelle Gellar filming scenes for her new movie Veronika Decides to Die in a small rowboat at Rockland Lake State Park in New York last week:

Yeah, I just love me some SMG so I just had to post these pics. She looks great (and Buffy-like) in these pics and I am excited for the release of her new movie even tho I’m a wee bit concerned that I may end up hating it (like most of her other movies, Cruel Intentions and I Know What You Did Last Summer notwithstanding). Thus far, the movie is full of promise … SMG looks amazing so I’ll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin]

Here are a few photo of Sarah Michelle Gellar on the NYC set of her new movie Veronika Decides to Die. In this scene, SMG‘s character Veronika decides to die by way of leaping off the Manhattan Bridge … which essentially means that SMG need only leap off a small platform set up on the Manhattan Bridge:

Again, it’s just great seeing SMG back to work on a new movie. While I’d be thrilled beyond words if she were to agree to star in a movie version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (er, well another movie version of BtVS with 100% less Luke Perry and 100% more Whedon Awesomeness), I’m just happy that she’s making any new movie — sooner or later one of them is bound to be a hit, right? Right? And even if not, she can always go back to playing Buffy. See, the Sex and the City Movie showed that not only can a hugely successful TV show make the transition to the big screen but a female-led movie can make boffo bucks at the box office. Hopefully SMG will come to her senses and sign on for a BtVS movie before she decides to die.

[Photo credit: X17]

Sarah Michelle Gellar was spied on the streets of a very hot (and I’m hearing miserable) New York City this week making her way to and fro her trailer on the set of her new movie Veronika Decides to Die which is currently filming:

Photo credit: Splash NewsI love that SMG is bringing back the big, bug-eyed sunglasses that Hollywood “It” Girl Nicole Richie made the summer fashion trend a few summers ago. I’m also glad that SMG is hard at work on a new movie … er, one that doesn’t have Scooby Doo in the title, that is. I think the world could always use a little more SMG. [Source]