Hayden Panettiere: 'I WANT A BOYFRIEND'

[Brian Damage]

May 11, 2007 -- 'HEROES' " cheerleader wants to kiss some boys.

Hayden Panettiere, who plays Claire Bennet, the invincible blonde bombshell, says that it's about time the cheerleader found a boyfriend - or two.

"I think people want to see her being a normal teenage girl," Panettiere said in a conference call with reporters. "They want to see her have boyfriends. They want to see the human side of her, which, you know, is what normal teenage girls do. They date. They like boys. They kiss boys."

Panettiere said she does not know of any specific plans for her character, or any of the others for that matter, but hopes Claire will be given the chance to act more like a normal teenager.

"It's possibly in the future," she says. "I haven't heard or seen anything from [next] season, so I can't tell you what exactly is going to happen, but yes, there is potential."

"I think she's a little serious," says Scott Gramling, the editor in chief at Wizard, a sci-fi magazine. "Claire is going to need somebody who is going to take a light-hearted approach to life, someone who will show her how to have fun with things, someone to sort of take the attitude that, unless it's life threatening, not to worry about it - and for her nothing is life threatening anyway."

Gramling suggested Johnny Storm, the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four would be a good candidate, because "Claire can play with fire and not get hurt."

Panettiere says the remaining episodes of the hit drama will focus on the big picture - herself and others with super powers trying to save the world.

"At the moment we're really concentrating on the human stories that are going on with the show," she says, "because it's not just about our powers. It's about mankind. It's about the world. It's about helping it before it becomes completely changed. Everyone's lives will be shifted and pointed in a different direction and, for the most part, as you saw, it's not for the good . . . I think it's about doing what's right and what we're kind of meant to do. But, you know, I am indestructible, and things happen all the time. My gore is definitely not over."

A recent episode of "Heroes" took place five years in the future after a nuclear explosion had destroyed most of New York City and the world had become a darker, more dangerous place.

The show's heroes are trying to prevent total disaster from happening.


http://www.nypost.com/seven/05112007...don_kaplan.htm