TV: Is Robin marrying Barney on 'How I Met Your Mother'?

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"How I Met Your Mother" ended its sixth season with what ranks as perhaps the best season finale of 2011.

We still don't know who the "Mother" in the title is, exactly who Ted (Josh Radnor) is going to marry. That's reportedly coming at the end of next season.

But we do know who the groom is at the wedding where Ted serves as best man and meets his future bride. In a true jaw-dropping twist, it turned out to be womanizer Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), of all people.

That Barney Stinson is getting married was shocker enough. But the fact that we don't know who Barney is going to marry made it that much more fun.

Speculation centers on Robin (Cobie Smulders), Barney's ex-girlfriend. Or Nora (Nazanin Boniadi), whom Barney seemed to have actual feelings for this past season.

Harris doesn't know who his character is marrying, either. But he did express a slight preference for Robin, speculating that perhaps the two of them will end up back together again. "I hope so," he said. "It wouldn't surprise me."

And he's tried to push the "How I Met Your Mother" writers in that direction. "I always throw in little longing glances at [Smulders] because I think she's great," Harris said. "And I always hope that they use those shots."

Sometimes they do end up in the episodes, while sometimes they end up on the cutting-room floor. "So I really don't know what's going to happen," he said.

His own life is considerably more settled. Harris and his longtime partner, fellow actor and occasional "How I Met Your Mother" guest star David Burtka, are the parents of 20-month-old twins Harper Grace and Gideon Scott, born to a surrogate mother.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever done but it's the best thing," Harris said. "We aren't getting a lot of sleep, but it's great."

And, contrary to some reports, Harris and Burtka are not currently planning their wedding.

After Harris sent out tweets in support of legalizing gay marriage in New York — "We've been wearing engagement rings for ages, waiting for an available date," he posted— those crazy folks in the media somehow arrived at the conclusion that Harris and Burtka were, well, just waiting for a date.

Not so, according to this later tweet: "Dear media: Just because David and I will soon be able to marry in NY, doesn't mean we are actively planning a wedding. Cart before horse."

So maybe Barney Stinson will be getting married before Neil Patrick Harris does. Although Harris seems to have settled on whom he'll marry.

"How I Met Your Mother" returns with new episodes on Sept. 19.

Scott D. Pierce's column appears Mondays and Fridays in The Mix. Contact him at spierce@sltrib.com, follow him on Twitter @ScottDPierce; read his blog at sltrib.com/blogs/tv.