Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen talk fame and fashion in Hong Kong
Celebrity babies, tween idols and now fashion magnates - Fionnuala McHugh asks how a lifetime in the glare of the camera has affected twins Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
Consider the bizarreness of the Olsen twins' life. They're born in June 1986 on, as it happens, Friday the 13th. Ashley arrives first and two minutes later, there's Mary-Kate - non-identical Gemini sisters for Trent, aged two. When they're about seven months old, one of those friends with which this sort of story is always populated suggests that the Olsen parents - Dave, a mortgage banker, and Jarnette, a former ballet dancer - send photos to a casting director. A television show in pre-production needs a baby and Californian labour laws mean that one tot is more usefully played by twins.
The Olsens oblige. "Horrible family photos," says Dave, in a 2003 documentary, adding, in the honourable tradition of amazed showbiz parents, "It was an absolute fluke." The twins join nine other sets at a casting session. They're the only ones who don't cry, who don't mind if strangers pick them up.
Filming starts immediately. The show, called Full House, is almost cancelled early on and Jarnette isn't happy with the disruption to family life. But it lasts for eight seasons, is sold widely overseas (in Estonia it's Lastega Kodus, in Poland Pelna Chata, to excitable Swedes it's Fullt Hus!) and the twins become famous, although they continue to share a single credit - Mary-Kate Ashley Olsen - long after besotted audiences can tell them apart. At the height of their fame, they're American television's second most-popular stars; the most popular, of course, is Bill Cosby.
Scripts are written around their real-life milestones: the first tooth, the first word, the first step. Their parents hire an entertainment lawyer called Robert Thorne to renegotiate their contracts. When they're seven, he helps them set up Dualstar Entertainment, and soon they've built a brand-licensing empire selling videos, clothing, books, bags and bedding to "tweens", a hitherto unmined consumer demographic aged between eight and 12.
By 10, they're the youngest self-made millionaires in American history. By 13, they're executive producers of their own films. A frequent comparison - a goal to strive for, at least in that pre-incarceration era - is with Martha Stewart.