LOS ANGELES - The usually affable Sarah Michelle Gellar smiles with effort when she's asked about her private life. A specific inquiry about her wedding plans with fiancé Freddie Prinze Jr. causes her to roll her eyes with a restrained sort of 'here we go again' look.

Gellar is a great deal more forthcoming when answering questions about her career. For instance, will there be a seventh TV season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer? "Yes," she says assuredly at the Warner Bros. Burbank studio lot.

And is she happy with the results of the mostly live action film version of the cartoon Scooby-Doo, which opens in theatres June 14? "I think relieved is a better description," says Gellar who plays darling Daphne opposite Prinze as handsome Fred. "Sometimes, you just don't know what you're going to end up with."

Most reports suggest that the Raja Gosnell-directed Scooby-Doo is a delightfully goofy big-screen adaptation of the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon series which has been in reruns for three decades and is still popular.

In the film, the gang from Mystery Inc. is tricked into looking for clues on Spooky Island during Spring Break. Their job, naturally, is to check out some weird ghoul-like occurrences. When they do, trouble ensues, and usually to great comedic affect.

Gellar's performance as Daphne is especially notable. The new Daphne is no longer a distressed damsel, but a martial arts expert ready to defend herself.

"It was important to me," says Gellar who has a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, "that Daphne do something for herself, sort of like Buffy. It was important that she wasn't helpless."

The filmmakers have signed up all four key cast members to do a sequel. So, will Gellar and fiancé Freddie Prinze Jr. (Fred) do Scooby-Doo 2 as husband and wife?

Yikes! When the subject comes up again, you can almost picture Gellar putting up her figurative 'Do Not Disturb' sign before issuing her decree.

"There are certain things in life that I cherish, and that are mine," she says. "I will never change my view on that."

Which means no comment concerning the wedding or the date.

"I have to explain," she continues a little less stridently "I'm honoured that young girls think I am a role model because of Buffy. And it's nice that people have curiosity about me, but my personal life is my own."

But it's a good thing Buffy fans can get on with their lives now that they know there will be at least one more year.

"It's funny," says Gellar, smiling as she ponders a more comfortable subject. "If you had asked me four years ago if we'd be going into our seventh season with Buffy, I would have said, 'I don't think so.'"

Could there be an eighth?

"It's one of those situations where we take it to the table near the end of the season and decide," she says.

"But I know one thing, we want to go out on top. We don't want to be that show where people say, 'Why wasn't that show cancelled three years ago?"

When asked if she would consider doing another Buffy movie, Gellar replied, "I feel like we do a one hour movie every week."

Like Daphne, Gellar concedes to being good at solving mysteries.

"I actually figured out The Sixth Sense before the end," Gellar says proudly. "Then I proceeded to blurt it out in the theatre, 'Oh, my gawd he's dead' I don't think anybody heard me."

With a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, what does she care if they did?