Known for her tenure as voluptuous horror hostess with a dark valley girl persona, Elvira has become possibly the most well known iconic figure for the horror community. The Mistress of the Dark is now looking for a handmaiden and is employing the help of Fox Reality TV. Competition is tight with entrants ranging from horror host A.K. Smith, Pinup Model Asia, Suicide Girl Mina, and Playboy Model Bridget from the E! show The Girls Next Door. See what Elvira has to say about the show, her latest ventures, and finding the perfect handmaiden of the dark!

What exactly will the handmaiden of your choosing do?

?She will be doing some of the overflow that I get for Halloween. Because every Halloween I get hundreds of requests to appear at people?s haunted houses or at shopping malls. Obviously there is only one of me so I?m not able to get to very many of them. I take the ones for all the big bucks, you know. And then all these poor other venues go begging. So I thought if I had another Elvira or eventually an entire army of Elvira clones then they could go make these appearances at shopping malls where they could basically pose with fans or sign autographs and take pictures.?

How did this project evolve at Fox?

?Well I thought of the idea a couple of years ago and my main goal was to find another Elvira to take over some of the jobs and then we came up with the brilliant idea-my manager and I-to make it a television show. We thought wouldn?t? that be an interesting process to find another Elvira, sort of Elvira?s evil handmaiden. So we shopped it around, fox really liked the idea and decided to do a miniseries during the month of Halloween.?

You?ve been doing this character for such a long time now. What is it going to be like for someone to step into the role?

?I think it will be a big relief, actually at this point. I?ve looked at Santa Clause for many years now with envy in my eyes because he gets to pick up all the gigs and I just was thinking, the character has become such a pop culture icon and so closely related with Halloween but I just cant get the character out there enough. Santa Clause gets out; he?s there in every city across the United States for Christmas. I?m unable to get the character out there enough. It?s just me at one venue here one there. At this point I think it?s going to be fantastic to see another Elvira out there. Actually during the process of the show-although I can?t give much away-it was fantastic to see some of these girls who have watched me since they were little girls who really get it, who love it and got the Elivra thing down. For me it?s flattering I love the fact that there will be someone else who is young and perky and gets it.?

Now that you?ll be sharing your Elvira duties and will have more time to dedicate to other projects, do you plan on exploring opportunities with feature length films or other projects?

?I?m working on a lot of really great projects right now. They are big long term projects that I hope to get going in the next year. I think rather than things calming down with having more Elvira?s their actually speeding up. I?m getting a real big team Elvira together for Elvira Inc. I eventually see Elvira becoming the Martha Stewart of the macabre. Also I?m working on a very large project just beginning which would be an animated Elvira feature. I don?t think that having more Elvira?s is going to slow it down unfortunately. I?ll be so busy training them at boob camp, I mean, you know, that I won?t have any time to do anything else.?

Anything else you are working on that we should look out for?

?Mattel is making a one of a kind Elvira Barbie that will be unveiled at Dream Halloween which is a big fundraiser for children?s AIDs which will be on the 27th of this month. Pretty happy to become a Barbie. A lot of new merchandise coming out. Elvira checks! You could have checks with Elvira on them!?

What were you looking for in a candidate? Obviously talent, looks, and personality are all important but was there one outweighing factor?

?Well, there?s a certain body type that you do have to have, ya know. If your going to play Santa Clause you?re going to have to be fat, if you?re going to play Spiderman you have to have some muscles on the chest area, but if you?re going to play Elvira you?re going to have to have?special assets. There was the body thing but more than the body thing, that was maybe a third of the equation but the more important parts were did they get the humor behind it, did they have a sense of humor, were they kind of sassy, and were they into horror and metaphysical stuff, Halloween and the whole spooky side. Those are the 3 elements that comprise Elvira and make her unique in the horror genre and that is sexy, funny and spooky. So it wasn?t as easy as just finding some girl with big boobs, we could go to Hooters and just ah, it was a lot more complicated than that. We saw a few girls who I loved, I adored, they looked so perfect but they just did not get the humor thing. That just wouldn?t work. There?s also the fear factor too because in my career I?ve had to do things like lay around covered in 150 snakes, I?ve had to be buried in a coffin for hours on end. So the girls have to be able to do a little bit of that stuff because after all they are going to be Elvira now.?

On the show will we actually see the girls go through those fear factor moments?

?Oh yes you definitely will. There are all kinds of challenges for them. They also have to be great entrepreneurs because obviously we?ve built up sort of a license and merchandising industry so the girls have to be able to sell, sell, sell! There are a lot of tests and challenges that they have to go through.?

Will they all have that trademark Elvira look?

?They are going to look like Elvira. We wanted them to show up as their own character in their own unique look to see if they really got it. So they start off like that way and slowly but surely they will turn into an identical twin of Elvira.?

What was it like working with your co-judges Kane Hodder and Rick Baker?

?They were great to work with they were funny and had really good insights. They get my character I mean they really get it. That was the nice thing about them because they?ve been working in the horror genre for years and they totally got it and I was really relieved to see that because I wasn?t 100% sure, I adore both of them but I was like are they really going to get that Elvira is about other stuff than just the boobs because, they are straight guys and everything. They were judging more on the other attributes than even I was. They added a lot and brought up some interesting points that really helped me out. They were both great and funny too. They both have good senses of humor. I was like hey wait a minute I?m the comedian here.?

What has been your most memorable moment as Elvira?

?Meeting Michael Jackson was pretty damn memorable and strange. He was going ?Elvira I should have hired you instead of Vincent Price to do the voice over? and I?m like, yeah thanks. Being in the Rose parade was pretty damn strange, I had my own float for the Post Office. It was the biggest most televised parade in the world. That was pretty bizarre. Reading the closing bill of the stock market was pretty damn weird. Introducing Bono on the Zoo tour was pretty cool and bizarre. I?ve had a lot of really unusual strange moments. The first time someone asked me to autograph their arm and they went and tattooed it in and came back the next day with a bloody old patch on their arm. I was really like oh my god that?s the sincerest form of flattery and now that?s like old hat. There?s hundreds and hundreds of people with Elvira images tattooed on their body which I sign all the time. I just did three of them yesterday for Hot Topic. I?m representing Hot Topic by the way for Halloween this year. I did like 3 new tattoos for people yesterday, their kind of my peeps over there at Hot Topic. That was interesting at first but now its kind of old hat.?

You have a couple celebrities as contestants. Were any of the contestants recruited for the show or did they all go through the full search audition process?

?All of them went through the full search audition process. There were no exceptions and that is Fox rules. I had a few people that I knew peripherally and I encouraged them to audition but they had to go through everything that everyone else did whether I suggested them or not. I had no way to let them breeze through that system. Bridget, I was on her show The Girls Next Door. Bridget just loves Elvira and just loves horror and she?s so knowledgeable about horror. I?ve also done her radio show and she just blew me away about what she knows about horror. She grew up watching it and adores Elvira and wanted to do it. I told her we were doing and it and it was all her. She was like ?oh my god!? could I try out can I be it. I was going sure that would be fantastic. But she has to go through the same things all the other girls do. You?ll have to stay tuned to see what happened.?

In one location you have you, Christian Patterson and 13 wanna-be Elvira?s. That?s a lot of T&A (Talent and Ability) in one location.

?It was frightening. It was so funny for me to see that. It was just too many Elvira?s in one space. When people see that on the TV show I think it?s pretty darn funny. It?s a little overwhelming. Their guys their girls and everything in between.?

Has your daughter ever expressed any interest in taking over Mom?s duties as Elvira in the future?

?Boy not so far. Right now she couldn?t be more embarrassed about what I do. ?Oh my god, can?t you act like a normal person ever!? She is into playing the bass and is so into the Sex Pistols and bass playing and she wrote a song and I love the song that she wrote. Because I have really long black finger nails she wrote this song and the beginning is like ?My mother has claws she?s not a person she?s a thing.? So that?s what my daughter thinks of me right now. That?s her assessment of me. She just thinks the whole Elvira thing is incredibly embarrassing. That could change over time, right now she?s 12 years-old she?s at that embarrassing stage where your parents embarrass you no matter who they are. So maybe it will change but right now oh my god, she?d rather die than be Elvira.?

While original Elvira, Cassandra Peterson?s daughter may not want to fulfill her mother?s duties, hundreds of girls throughout the nation auditioned for the chance. Thirteen have made their way closer to being the next Elvira and will compete for the chance to be handmaiden to the Mistress of Dark herself! Check your local listings and watch The Search for The Next Elvira on Fox Reality, Saturday October 13th after the 2007 Fox Reality Channel Really Awards.