You wouldn't know it to look at her, but Kimbra Hickey is famous. Mega famous. From the elbows down.

The New York hand model, whose digits feature on the cover of millions of copies of Stephenie Meyer's phenomenally successful Twilight novels, is on a campaign to get fans to look a little higher, pitching for a part in the latest Twilight movie.

Hickey, 40, was paid $310 for her apple-cupping expertise and is now working
her connection with the vampire series to break into acting.

According to The New York Post, she stands beside the cash register at her local bookshop to sign
autographs and trace outlines of her hands for fans who initially have
no idea who she is.

Hickey, who has been branded a "loony" online, also carries a red apple around in her handbag, ready to
recreate her famous pose at any moment.

"It was too big of a deal just to let it be," Hickey told the newspaper.

"It was major exposure for my hands. But nobody knew who I was.

"I see people reading [the Twilight novels] on the subway, and I say, 'Those are my hands! I'm a hand model!'

"I'm sure they think I'm crazy - a crazy lady on the subway."

She has also started working the Twilight conventions circuit, selling apple scented hand cream to Twihards.

In a Q & A with fan site Twilight Lexicon, Hickey, dubbed "the Hands of Twilight", revealed the photographer's difficult brief at the Twilight book cover shoot in 2004.

"He wanted my hands to look soft, sweet, and death-like all at the same
time," she said. "It was also very important that the inner part of my
arms formed a perfect V, for vampire, of course!

"After only a couple of hours we got the winning shot, and now iconic image."

Ironically, Hickey, who is a massage therapist by trade, was cast for the vampire book cover because her hands were "veinless",
according to her agent.

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, the final installment in the franchise, is being filmed in two parts, with part one due to hit cinemas in November 2011.

"If I could get a little background part, it would be fantastic," Hickey
said of the movie. "Even if they only wanted my hands in it."

source