What happened between Ariana Grande and Elvira? Horror comedy icon slams singer's 'offensive' interaction

Ariana Grande is once again making the headlines not for her music, but for her feud with horror comedy icon Cassandra Peterson, who is most known for her gothic persona, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The 74-year-old legend recently brought up the subject again, calling Grande's previous actions "very offensive" and expressing the hope that the singer will become humble as a result.

Peterson described an approximately seven-year-old meeting with Grande in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. The seasoned performer claims that the Wicked actress showed up with a huge entourage after requesting 20 backstage tickets to an Elvira show.

Peterson tells Entertainment Weekly:

"What's the word? You know, where you do something, but you really have other thoughts in mind? Like, 'Thank you, not really, thank you. Her mom used to really like me, but maybe not now."

She continued:

"I take a picture with every single one of them, I sign autographs for every single one of them. Then I say to her, 'Can we take a photo together?' And she goes, 'No, I don't really do that.'"

Last year, Peterson shared a video of this incident on Instagram, and it went viral right away.

Ariana Grande's apology:

Grande later wrote a long Instagram comment in response to the viral post, which has now been deleted. The singer clarified that she had an anxiety attack that day and probably departed before the event was over, which is why she didn't remember meeting Peterson/Elvira:

"So disheartened to see this. I actually don't even remember getting the chance to meet you because I had an anxiety attack and to my memory, left before the rest of my family (this was around 7 years ago and at the time I was really not great with being in public crowds or loud places)... but if i'm misremembering this moment, i sincerely apologize for offending you so."

Grande went on to express gratitude to Peterson for showing her mother kindness, saying:

"Thank you for being so nice to my mom, she told me how lovely you were (she might have different feelings about that now but i'll talk to her… clearly, we all have our days!)"

Elvira's final thoughts

In her most recent comments, Peterson told Entertainment Weekly that she hasn't spoken to Grande since the apology and expressed disappointment:

"After that response from her, no, I just let the whole thing drop," she tells EW. "I told a story that really happened. She did it. I wasn't making it up. It was very offensive. I had all the celebrities who I had ever come to my show — and there was a ton — were always gracious and kind, and, um, she was not. I'm sorry to say that. It's disappointing when you hear things like that, and learn things like that. It's sad. But, oh well."

Peterson, AKA Elvira, does not harbor any animosity toward the Grammy-winning musician in spite of her disappointment; she went on to say:

"I think when you're young and you're in show business — well, if you last in show business for any amount of time and are still famous — you do learn a lot of lessons along the way, and you get a little more humble. So hopefully that will happen with her."

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The horror comedy icon, Elvira's new book, Elvira's Cookbook From Hell, is now available at all book retailers, which include cocktail recipes, craft projects and recipes titled Dead Man's Corpse Loaf, Barbecued "Bat" Wings, Swamp Monster Frittata, and Spook-ghetti and Eyeballs. Joking about it, she said:

"I used to call myself the Martha Stewart of the Macabre, and I always thought, wouldn't it be funny to do a kind of cooking-lifestyle book like Martha Stewart? She was really my inspiration. I'm a big fan of hers."

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