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Cox News Service
by Kevin D. Thompson
'Buffy' Star Called to a Higher Billing

Eliza Dushku wants to set the record straight.

Despite all the Internet rumors, she insists there were never any concrete plans to do a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" spinoff starring Faith.

"It was never something where they came and said, 'We want you to do this show,' and I said, 'No, I don't want to do it,"' Dushku says of her butt-kicking, wisecracking TV alter ego. "I don't think ("Buffy" creator) Joss (Whedon) was ready to dive in and write another show. And I wanted to do something where I was standing on my own two feet."

Dushku is doing that in "Tru Calling," a new Fox drama in which she plays a morgue attendant who can relive a day after dead bodies ask her for help.

Think "The Sixth Sense" meets "Early Edition."

Dushku admits it was time to put Faith to rest.

"I started the character of Faith five years ago, and the character kind of traveled with me as I grew up and was me in a lot of ways," says the 22-year-old actress. "I loved the show, and that character's been good to me, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that we could have made an interesting (spinoff), but I think you have to go down the road less traveled."

Obviously going from being part of an ensemble to headlining your own show adds more pressure.

"I'm terrified, but I'm excited," Dushku says. "I play characters who take risks, and I think of myself as someone who takes risks. You've got to be gutsy. What have you got to lose?"

Dushku says she'll miss the show - especially her scenes with D.B. Woodside, Sunnydale High's suave Principal Wood.

"He's such a good-looking baby," she says, laughing hard. "He was charming, he was smooth ... his voice, ooooh, don't even get me started."

So, in her mind, did Faith and Wood ride off into the sunset together in the series finale?

"We did in MY fantasy," she says.