A lot has changed since my first interview with Holly Madison. In 2006, Holly and the other Girls Next Door were giddy from a successful first season of their new E! reality show, and were enjoying the fresh novelty of their unexpected fame. Holly was living at the Playboy Mansion as Hugh Hefner’s number one girlfriend (whatever that meant), and she was thrilled at the prospect of a Playboy Magazine spread and her very own bobble head doll, which we laughed about. Besides that, I think she was still dizzily caught in the whirlwind that came with going from Hef’s anonymous blonde arm candy to bona fide television personality.
I jokingly told her at the time, “You know you’ve made it when you have your own bobble head!” To which Holly replied, “Exactly! We've made it! We have one that's next to Hef's now.”
Well at some point her aspirations grew beyond being forever immortalized in the likes of a creepy wobble-headed doll, and she set out to broaden her horizons, both personally and professionally. When offered the chance to star in Peepshow, a big budget Las Vegas review at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, Holly Madison’s inner showgirl jumped for joy and she packed up for the bright lights of the Vegas strip.
Reluctant to speak of her dating life, which could perhaps be merely tabloid-fabricated, Holly was open with me about her current disillusionment with the opposite sex, mum on all things Hef, and blunt in her desire for single motherhood. We also threw some Bridget and Kendra into the mix to round out our conversation.
Holly Madison’s new E! reality show, Holly’s World, will document a new chapter in Holly’s life as the Las Vegas showgirl next door, a simple all-American girl with a dream, trying to find love and success in Sin City.
PR.com (Allison Kugel): Last time we spoke things were much different. You were living at the Playboy Mansion. At the time you told me that you didn’t think of yourself as a celebrity. Four years later, how do you see yourself now?
Holly Madison: I still kind of don’t. I see myself with a lot of work to do still. I just see myself as somebody who got lucky, and has a little reality show, and I’m just trying to have fun with it.
PR.com: Is Las Vegas now your permanent home?
Holly Madison: Yeah, definitely. I love Las Vegas. I just bought a house here. The people here are really nice. It’s like a small town, but there are so many fun things to do.
PR.com: Do you ever visit the Playboy Mansion?
Holly Madison: I don’t really have time. I’m busy working here in Vegas, so I don’t get out to LA that much.
PR.com: Are you still performing in Peepshow, and will Holly’s World cover your performances in the show?
Holly Madison: Yeah, I do six nights a week. And, no, not the performances because it’s a union show so we can’t show it, but it shows some of the backstage and some of the behind-the-scenes kind of stuff.
PR.com: Is Peepshow a typical Las Vegas review?
Holly Madison: It’s a big budget burlesque Show in Vegas, and it’s really the only modern burlesque show we have out here. It’s really great.
PR.com: Are you comfortable nude in any situation, or is there a scenario where you wouldn’t feel comfortable performing nude or topless?
Holly Madison: Yeah, there are definitely scenarios where I wouldn’t feel comfortable. It just has to be done in the right context.
PR.com: Who pitched Holly’s World to whom? How did the show come about?
Holly Madison: When we were on The Girls Next Door, the three of us, there was always talk about us being possible spin-offs for E!. When I moved out of the mansion I started pitching the idea of a show about four friends living in Vegas and just trying to succeed in life and follow their dreams.
PR.com: Were these people cast for Holly’s World, or were they actual friends of yours beforehand?
Holly Madison: These are my friends. One of them is one of my co-stars in Peepshow, one is my roommate, and the other is a friend of mine who I know through Playboy, but she is a local. She was born and raised in Las Vegas.
PR.com: I’ve heard you say that Las Vegas is a combination of a small town and a big city, what do you mean by that?
Holly Madison: Amongst the locals here it is very much a small town. It’s a small city and everybody is very nice and down to earth, and non-pretentious. But because it is Las Vegas and it’s the huge tourist attraction that it is, there is everything fun that you would want to do in any big city, even more so!
PR.com: Do you feel uncomfortable with the seedier side of Las Vegas at all?
Holly Madison: One thing that annoys me are those people that flick the hooker cards out on the strip. If I were the Mayor I would ban those. You know, the cards with the naked girls on them (laughs).
PR.com: Are you dating Benji Madden?
Holly Madison: No, I’m not dating anyone. I’m single. And you’ll see all of that unfold on the show. And I’m just living. I’m just concentrating on work right now.
PR.com: What’s your take on Heidi Montag having been quoted as saying that Playboy inspired her to get so much plastic surgery?
Holly Madison: I think it’s kind of weird. I think people need to know when to stop, when it comes to plastic surgery. I’m kind of surprised, living in LA that she doesn’t know when to stop. I lived in LA for ten years and I lived at the Mansion for eight years. We would go to these parties at some rich person’s house in Beverly Hills, and you would see all these older women in their fifties and they’ve had a lot of plastic surgery. And I’ve had plastic surgery too. I’m happy with what I got. I had two procedures a long time ago, and no more for me. But you see these women and they’re older, and they are walking advertisements of what not to get. They all have the same exact 1980s ski slope nose job, they have those nasty rubberized fake lips, and they have the frozen face. How can you live in LA and look at that and think, “That’s a good idea. I want to get that too”? I don’t understand.
PR.com: I saw on your Twitter feed that you had gone to church on Sunday. Are you a regular churchgoer?
Holly Madison: Yeah, I go to church with my friend Angel. Her family has a church out here they have been going to their whole lives, and we usually go together.
PR.com: What denomination were you raised as?
Holly Madison: I wasn’t raised religious. My dad would take us to different churches, but we were raised in Alaska and it was really rural. There wasn’t really one church we connected with up there.
PR.com: Any new interests or hobbies that you have discovered you enjoy since moving to Las Vegas?
Holly Madison: I think I have always liked to explore and check out tourist attractions. I’m working on a book on Las Vegas right now, a travel guide. I just love exploring. I love taking advantage of what’s out there and seeing what’s out there, and meeting new people. I don’t know if that’s new (laughs).
PR.com: What is your routine for getting red carpet ready? How do you put yourself together and how long does it take you?
Holly Madison: It takes maybe an hour or so. I’ll just curl my hair and throw on some makeup. I usually will go department store shopping, maybe once every six months, and just load up so I have a stock pile to choose from when an appearance comes up, because they come up so often.
PR.com: What’s your must-have beauty item?
Holly Madison: I think for me, personally, false eyelashes help a lot, even if you’re not wearing a lot of other makeup. It makes everything pop.
PR.com: What are your thoughts on Rachel Uchitel posing for Playboy?
Holly Madison: I don’t know. If it’s something she has always wanted to do, go for it. I thought being in Playboy was fun.
PR.com: Let me re-phrase. Do you think she deserves the attention and the publicity?
Holly Madison: It’s so hard to make a judgment in this day and age, because it’s whatever captures the public’s imagination.
PR.com: What percentage of things that are written about you on blogs and in magazines would you say is accurate?
Holly Madison: Every once in awhile I’ll see something in a magazine that’s not true and it’s just kind of funny. I definitely don’t read message boards or anything, because I think people go on there and just make crap up. Every once in a while something will come out that’s not true, but I feel like there’s no point in even trying to debate it (laughs).
PR.com: What’s your favorite thing to do when you are alone?
Holly Madison: Probably just read.
PR.com: What’s your best quality?
Holly Madison: I think I am pretty focused.
PR.com: Most embarrassing habit?
Holly Madison: Picking my nose, but I don’t know if anyone has ever caught me (laughs).
PR.com: Who is your celebrity crush, male or female?
Holly Madison: Katy Perry. I love her lyrics and I love her outfits. And I think she has the best body.
PR.com: Have you ever met her?
Holly Madison: No.
PR.com: What is your favorite Las Vegas hotspot to go to?
Holly Madison: I love XS [Nightclub] at Encore [Hotel & Casino].
PR.com: Last time we spoke you were interested in getting married and having kids. Is that something you’re still interested in?
Holly Madison: Well, I definitely want to have kids, but I’ll probably adopt because there is no guy good enough for me, Ha Ha!
PR.com: What kind of guest appearances are Kendra and Bridget going to make on Holly’s World?
Holly Madison: Bridget and I went on a road trip together. I went on a road trip from LA to Vegas researching different fun places you could stop at, for my book, and Bridget came with me on that because we always talked about doing it. And Kendra comes out and sees my new house, and she teaches me how to throw a baseball, because I had to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game.
PR.com: What is one moment in an episode that is a “can’t miss” moment, out of the eight episodes of Holly’s World that will air?
Holly Madison: I haven’t seen any of the cuts yet, but I hear the Cancun episode gets pretty explosive. There are some crazy bar fights.
PR.com: You were there, right (laughs)?
Holly Madison: Yeah, but what I remember is debatable. The show is just going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to show Las Vegas in a whole new light that people don’t usually see, and I think it’s going to make people a lot more excited to come here.
PR.com: Tell me about your collaboration with The Sugar Factory?
Holly Madison: They have helped me design my own signature line of candy necklaces. I remember wearing them all the time when I was a kid, and it’s just a super fun idea.
PR.com: Since you are now a full time Las Vegas resident, how often do you visit the casinos, and how do you fair when you are gambling?
Holly Madison: I don't ever gamble. Living in a casino makes it just a bit dangerous. If I did gamble I would play at Planet Hollywood. They have blackjack felts with my picture on them.
PR.com: And what would you be doing for a living right now if you didn't stumble upon your status as a famous blonde bombshell?
Holly Madison: I would be working at Disneyland. I've wanted to work there my whole life!
“Holly’s World” premieres Sunday, June 13th at 10:30/9:30c on E!