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Mistress Elvira, My Heart's On Fire Over New Show

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2007

It has been more than 26 years since Cassandra Peterson first put on the Elvira get-up and started her career as the campy vampire with the ample cleavage.

'I owe it all to an industrial-strength bra that made me the D-sized queen of B-movies,' she said during an interview in Beverly Hills, Calif., this summer.

The Mistress of the Dark showed up at a fall preview tour for TV critics to promote her reality series, 'The Search for the Next Elvira.'

It debuts at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Fox Reality Channel. That's channel 148 on the digital tier of Bright House Networks and channel 177 on Verizon.

The 56-year-old says more than 2,000 women and a few cross-dressing males auditioned for the show. It will run for three consecutive Saturday nights.

'You know some of the guys had the best makeup,' she notes.

If you think the off-key wanna-bes who show up for 'American Idol' are whacked, wait until you see the characters who didn't make the cut for Elvira.

You can see Elvira and some of those who did make the cut at my blog on TBO.com, keyword: Walt TV.

Peterson says the competition to be like Elvira involves rodents, bugs, coffins, graveyards and, of course, lingerie.

Being Elvira is not easy. Peterson says it takes hours to get into her costume and makeup. But it has paid off. She's a pop culture icon and the queen of Halloween. Check out her Web site (Elvira

.com) for all that Elvira merchandise.

Peterson went from performing as a Vegas showgirl to doing improvisational comedy and trying to launch an acting career. A gig on a Los Angeles TV station changed her life. As host of a late-night show that featured cheap horror flicks, she created a sexy cross between a Valley Girl and a vampire.

She says she got the idea for this reality show when she was signing autographs and young women kept asking her whether she were the real Elvira.

'Then I realized that Elvira is like Batman or Superman. The character is bigger than me. Every Halloween, millions of women dress up like her. This time, I'm going to pick an official replica. You know, I might let her or him do a couple of gigs for me because I can't be everywhere on Halloween night.'

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