LOS ANGELES (AFP) - About 85,000 people are seeking a chance to become Paris Hilton's new sidekick on the hotel heiress's new reality television show, "I Wanna Be Paris' New Best Friend," People magazine reported Thursday.

Only 20 people out of the 85,000 will make it as finalists on the MTV show after being chosen by web surfers on the site ParisBFF.com.

The contestants will have to overcome a series of tests before Hilton decides who deserves to be the 27-year-old starlet's new BFF, or "best friend forever."

The show, which begins production in May, will be broadcast this year, People reported.

A darling of the tabloids, Hilton, the great-granddaughter of the Hilton hotel chain's founder, shot to fame in 2003 when her boyfriend leaked a video of their sexual escapades on the Internet.

She became a television star with the reality show "The Simple Life" alongside her real-life friend, Nicole Ritchie, in which the celebrity princesses lived at a country farm in a lifestyle neither would likely ever otherwise encounter.

Hilton has since appeared in films and made musical recordings.

Last year, she was jailed for 23 days for violating probation over an alcohol-related reckless driving conviction.

Source: AFP