PETA has what is starting to be a very unhealthy obsession with the Olsen twins. Like if PETA were the Olsen twins’ ex-boyfriend, it’d have a few restraining orders against it. The organization has been after the pint-sized twosome for years because they wear fur. And to be fair, the two don’t just wear it occasionally, but pretty much every chance they get.

I am damn sure that if one of their bodyguards ran over a bear (highly likely to happen in New York City, I might add) one or both of them would jump out of their excessively large SUV, knife already in hand, and have a new coat in under seventeen minutes flat. So if you’re anti-fur, the Olsen twins are one of the most legitimate targets out there.

As a birthday gift to the Olsens, PETA is requesting that people send the girls clumps of hair.

PETA is obsessed with trashing Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, whom they refer to as the Trollsen Twins, who are celebrating their birthdays this Friday.

PETA is encouraging animal lovers to send clumps of hair to the twins as a birthday gift. They’ve posted this on their website:

“The twins are still sporting as much fur as ever. Since they seem to be in such dire need of extra hair on their bodies, let’s give them some of ours—and send a strong message while we’re at it….Save that hair in a bag and mail it to the twins with a note that says, “Please, use my hair instead of the animals’. Happy Birthday.”

[From Hollyscoop via Gossip Rocks]

I am rabidly anti-fur; but I will admit that it bothers me less when people in excessively harsh and frigid climates wear it to keep warm than it does when fashionistas wear it to complete an outfit. But the Olsens are so emaciated that part of me wonders if perhaps they actually are as frigid as someone wandering around in Northern Siberia would be.

Today it’s already a record 101 at 1:30 in the afternoon here in New York City. But to the Olsens, wandering around scared and cold in the West Village, it’s probably registering somewhere around 19 degrees on their bones. I would still prefer they bundle up in a nice poofy Northface jacket. But I will point out that they’re probably a lot colder than the rest of us.

There is major drama in the Olsen twin’s lives. No, not more fighting with their parents – or each other. No bulimia or alcoholism. No rehab. But the twins’ overly-thin lifestyle has really started to grate on some people’s nerves – specifically a barista at their local Starbucks. According to several published reports, the barista claims to have secretly used whole milk in an attempt to fatten up the emaciated starlets.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen better get the skinny on their favorite Starbucks beverages soon! The caffeine addicts always request a Grande nonfat latte from the coffee empire, but a source tells OK! there’s way more to what they ordered.

An ex-barista at the twins’ local Starbucks in their West Village, New York neighborhood made sure that skim milk was not on the menu or in the girls’ cups when they came in. “The barista thought the Olsens were too thin, so whenever they ordered their usual drink, he would replace the skim milk with full-fat!” the source reveals.

However, the Olsens’ rep tells OK!, “This is ridiculous.”

[From OK! Magazine]

Pretty much every blog picked up this story, which shows you just how desperate we are for Olsen info. I’d like to point out that just because their rep said it’s ridiculous, that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It’s not like the rep – or even the Olsens – would really know. In fact they are looking slightly less freakishly scary thin. I bet it’s the milk.

The Olsens seem to be making enemies all over the West Village. Turns out, their pissing off their neighbors too.

For the sector of people who care where Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen went after abandoning their overly reported apartment at One Morton Square, we can now disclose that they’re living in a nice brownstone in the West Village.

And it was a few of their neighbors who brought it to our attention. “The bodyguards in their SUVs are always getting in the way of our alternate-side parking routine, said one resident of the 100 block on West 13th Street. “You’d think the president was living here.

“They certainly keep late hours, said another neighbor. “I was jogging early one morning, and they were piling out of their gas guzzlers in their little club outfits.

[From the New York Post]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard an Olsen twin actually speak – in fact I’m fairly sure they’re both mute – so it’s hard to label them entitled bitches. Though I really want to. But I’ve never really heard them say anything particularly snotty or bitchy.

It doesn’t sound like their bodyguards are doing anything that annoying – it sounds like the neighbor has a problem with the fact that the bodyguards are there at all. I bet the neighbor and the barista are going to get together and hatch some kind of evil, fattening plot to get the Olsens out of the neighborhood. For people that don’t talk, they manage to cause a lot of drama everywhere they go.

Header of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen at the Costume Institute Gala on May 5th. Images thanks to WENN.

I’ve always been really surprised that there wasn’t more drama between twin sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I can’t imagine any sisters that don’t argue - I can only wonder how hard it would be to run a multi-million dollar business empire with your twin. The 21-year-olds have spent more time apart in the last few years and have been photographed actually hanging out with people besides each other. However their business interests have remained almost entirely intertwined. While it seems like the two have been nearly joined at the hip, apparently there’s been some trouble between them, and they’ve been fighting over business and real estate decisions.

“They’ve finally had enough of each other,” says a friend. “They just don’t see eye-to-eye anymore and are tired of constantly butting heads.” Now friends say the rift between the twins seems to be growing bigger by the day. “Ashley isn’t an angel, but she’s tired of having to take care of Mary-Kate,” says the friend. “One second Mary-Kate is maniacally happy, and the next she’s sobbing. Her mood swings are dragging Mary-Kate down, and finally, Ashley’s decided she doesn’t want to go down with her.”

But no matter how they feel, the twins can’t simply ignore each other, sources say. At stake is their $100 million personal fortune - also a bone of contention between the squabbling sisters, say the insider. “Ashley’s been considering separating their assets and trusts and getting her own business manger,” the insider says.

[From Star, April 7 2008, print edition]

The Enquirer also has a similar story, saying the pair are fighting over the company and have deep-seated resentments towards one another. Apparently Mary-Kate feels Ashley manipulated her into making bad business decisions, and regrets the twins’ choice to cut their parents out of their company Dualstar.

And one of the biggest rifts between the sisters centers on their decision to “fire” their parents - David and Jarnette, who are divorced - when they took charge [of Dualstar]. Although they both agreed to the move at the time, Mary-Kate now blames Ashley for pushing her into it, says a family insider.

Mary-Kate went along with the firing in part because she was angry that her family forced her into Utah’s Cirque Lodge rehab in June of 2004 to get treatment for an eating disorder. “Mary-Kate had some real issues with the family after they put her in rehab. But now she feels like that may have colored her decision to cut them out of Dualstar. Mary-Kate now regrets her decision — on the other hand, Ashley thinks it was the right move. That’s what Mary-Kate and Ashley mainly fight about.”

[From the National Enquirer, April 7 2008, print edition]

Neither magazine says if the girls’ parents are still speaking with them, though the Enquirer notes that their dad and stepmom have publicly criticized the way they’ve run Dualstar since firing their parents. Both articles are a great example of exactly why it’s not a good idea to mix business and family. Some manage to pull it off with amazing success, but it sounds like the Olsens are starting to unravel a bit. They also bickered about the sale of their Manhattan apartment – whether to sell it, and then for how much. Their identities have always been so wrapped up in each other – at least publicly – that it seems inevitable that they’d eventually want to carve out their own niche in the world. The fighting seems sort of unavoidable to me. It seems like Ashley’s idea to separate their finances could be a really good thing, and then they could try just being sisters instead of business partners.

Here are Mary-Kate and Ashley with Karl Lagerfeld and with Mario Testino and Claudia Schiffer at the Chanel Fashion show, during Paris Fashion Week Fall-Winter 2008-2009 ready to wear collection, at the Grand Palais in Paris on March 8th. Images thanks to Splash.

You know what young people love? A good coffee table book. Yes you heard me correctly. Though older generations are known for using them simply as decor, it’s nearly impossible to make a young person not flip though a coffee table book. In fact, the real problem is the way they make notes in the margins. Most young people don’t even flip through the books casually anymore, instead preferring to take them home and read them intensely, forgetting about sleep and food and work, becoming so wrapped up as they do in coffee table books. They return the book tattered, dog-eared and highlighted. Given this generational obsession with what was formerly seen as a mere place to rest one’s mug, you can see why the Olsen twins have decided to put all their energy into a coffee table book for young people.

Mary-Kate and Ashley have signed with Penguin Young Readers to write a new book, with the working title Influence, introducing them to the towering figures that have influenced the “Business Women, Designers and Global Style Icons.” Don’t look for Margaret Thatcher or Golda Meir here, though — these are more the folks you’d find on PatrickMcMullan:

Influence introduces readers to respected artists, seasoned designers and others who have influenced Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen over the past decade. The book will feature influential figures including; Christian Louboutin, Lauren Hutton, Bob Colacello, Terry Richardson, Jack Pierson and Robert Lee Morris. A coffee table book, Influence includes exclusive photographs of Ashley and Mary-Kate from world renowned photographer Rankin, and a wide variety of other never-before-seen materials and interviews from Mary-Kate and Ashley’s personal collections.

These, according to Ashley, are “the most interesting, challenging, creative people we know — the ones who helped pave the way for us and our generation.” Adds Mary-Kate: “Ashley and I interviewed the people who have inspired us, with the hope that they will inspire and teach others.”

[From the Huffington Post]

While the Olsens do have some higher-end merchandise, most of their “young person” stuff is sold at Walmart. I’m not exactly sure those are the types of teenagers who are going to be interested in hearing about Christian Louboutin and Lauren Hutton. I’m also thinking they might not be the traditional coffee table book buying type. Not that a whole lot of people their age are, mind you. Sure once in a while they may grab a coffee table book from the living room, but it’s just to use as a flat surface to eat their dinner on. Yeah I do it every night, what’s the big deal? Certainly I might feel a tad more sophisticated if I ate my Cup ‘O Noodles on an Olsen Twin couture coffee table book, but I have a feeling that I’m the only one. Though the twins are known for their business savvy, I can’t help but think this might not be their biggest seller.

Here’s Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen at the 2007/8 Chanel Cruise Show Presented By Karl Lagerfeld in Santa Monica on May 18th. Images thanks to Splash.

The Olsen twins have their apartment up for sale in New York’s Greenwich Village. It has twelve rooms, one of which is a 53ft entertaining room with a center fireplace. It has a private elevator, two 100 square foot walk-in closets, and views of the Hudson River.

According to the real estate website, the 5,725 square foot apartment has some of “the most spectacular water and city views in all of Manhattan through 53 large picture windows.”

Four additional bedrooms, a powder room, four full marble baths, plus 24 hour doorman, concierge and in-house valet.

Daily Telegraph

Sound tempting? The apartment will only set you back a cool $12 million, which is quite a tidy profit for the girls, who purchased the apartment when they were nine for $7 million. They have never lived there, but rented the property for $35,000 a month.

I wish I’d been so money-smart when I was nine, maybe I was. Perhaps the weak link here is that I simply didn’t have a spare $7 million in pocket money. Really, I wish mum had pushed me into showbiz somedays, instead of making me play basketball. Fortunately, I now have my own children to be overly ambitious for, I’ll show mum how it’s really done.

Picture note by Jaybird: Here are the Olsen twins at the Annual Free Arts NYC Art and Photography Benefit Auction on May 23, 2006. It seems like they’re really trying to carve out their own identities - between selling their joint apartment and rarely being photographed together anymore. Images thanks to PR Photos.

Today’s NY Post quotes Lance Armstrong as insisting that he and Ashley Olsen are “just friends” and are not having a May-December romance. He says that despite reports that they were all over each other in public, those were group dates and we shouldn’t read anything into it:

“Ashley Olsen and I are strictly friends,” the world-renowned athlete told us. “We have hung out amongst other friends, and she strikes me as a nice, smart lady.”

[From The NY Post]

I love how he calls her a “lady,” as if he’s trying to attribute maturity beyond her years to the 21-year-old Ashley.

Lance might be telling the truth and he might be “just friends” with Ashley. It’s possible their all-too-public fling is over at this point. Tabloids were reporting that 36 year-old Lance’s friends were giving him grief for dating young Ashley, and this week’s OK! Magazine says that Ashley stood him up on Halloween.

The pair [Ashley and Lance] was spotted getting cozy in NYC, and on Oct. 29, Ashley, 21, and Lance, 36, enjoyed each other’s company at the Rose Bar inside the Gramercy Hotel. Though they rendezvoused again at the Waverly Inn days later, Ashley might be already scared off. They were supposed to meet up at hot spot The Box on Halloween, but, a source tells OK!, “Ashley didn’t show up and left Lance there waiting.”

[From OK! Magazine, print edition, November 19, 2007]

So now Lance is denying that he has anything going on with Ashley, and it’s probably true since it looks like he got dumped.

Ashley Olsen with designer Marc Jacobs
Technically Ashley Olsen has been legal for a while. She turned 21 this summer, and if she had stayed in college instead of realizing that she was richer than sin and could have all the fun without the commitment of having to prove she learned stuff, she might be graduating now. I shudder to think of the crap I was up to at 21, but I’m married now with a toddler, and being in that situation makes you get nostalgic about near-constant hangovers punctuated by exams and random hookups. That was a long time ago for me, though, and I will probably never relive the chaos and stupidity of those years. Getting wasted and neglecting all responsibility does seem deceptively attractive compared to raising a three year old who screams his head off at the sight of bathwater. Maybe that’s what Whitney Bears is going through now.

Like Whitney, not everyone is willing to undertake the responsibilities that go along with the phase of life they’re supposed to be in. Hooking up with a hot young thing is often a way of reliving a youth that wasn’t that great the first time. Lance Armstrong is older than me at 36, but he still seems too old for Ashley Olsen. As a fit guy under 40, he’s not creepy-old for a 21 year-old, just in-denial old.

Both the NY Post and The Daily News are reporting that Lance and Ashley were all over each at a bar. This doesn’t make me go “ewww” so much as say “why?”

ODD couple alert: Ashley Olsen has a new, older man. The 21-year-old twin showed up to the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel Monday night with Tory Burch’s ex, Lance Armstrong, 36. Our bar spy said, “They came together with a group of friends. Ashley drank red wine, sat on his lap and they were making out all night. They left together around 2 a.m.” Armstrong has been spending more time in town since he bought a home here. Another source said, “He tried to make Tory happy when they were dating by buying a place here, but she couldn’t deal with him not actually living in the same city, so they broke up.” Olsen’s rep didn’t return calls.

[From Page Six]

Lance was most recently dating some woman I’ve never heard of, fashion designer Tory Burch, who has an amazing six children and looks more Lance’s age and speed. He was also with singer Sheryl Crow for over two years following his divorce from the mother of his three children in September, 2003.

Ashley had a 30 year-old long-term boyfriend, Scott Sartiano, until recently, who was already too old for her.

Despite the questionable nature of this new relationship, I’m really glad to see this story today. I was looking for an excuse to publish these excellent pictures of Ashley Olsen’s Halloween costume. So go ahead and make out with guys who are nearly old enough to be your daddy, Ashley. As long as you can come up with inventive and non-slutty costumes like this, you get a pass.

Ashley Olsen is shown at a Halloween party with Marc Jacobs and his boyfriend. Pictures via ONTD.

Everyone’s favorite former meth addict, Jodie Sweetin, (aka Stephanie Tanner from “Full House”) got married in Las Vegas this past Saturday. According to Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Sweetin walked down the aisle for the second time at the famed Little Church of the West.

Jodie Sweetin, who played Stephanie in “Full House” during the sitcom’s eight-year run, got married Saturday at the Little Church of the West. Sweetin, who overcame a crystal meth addiction that cost her five teeth, married Cody Herpin, 30, of Los Angeles. Sweetin, 25, joins a long list of celebrities who married at the chapel, best known for the site of where Elvis and Ann Margret exchanged vows during the filming of “Viva Las Vegas.”

[From the Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Hopefully this marriage will work out better than her last one. Sweetin famously admitted to “Good Morning America” last year that she had developed a meth problem that cost her, (in addition to the five teeth) her marriage to her police officer husband. Sweetin claimed that after “Full House” ended, she felt a sense of loss and didn’t know what to do with herself. She tried to be normal by going to a regular high school and college, and ended up married at age 20. She quickly became bored with her life and wasn’t getting any acting jobs, and ended up experimenting with drugs and getting addicted to meth. Sweetin went on a major three-day bender, after which her friends and family (and former Full House costars including the Olsen twins, Bob Saget and John Stamos) staged an intervention. She then attended Promises (way before Britney and Lindsay made it trendy) for a six week treatment.

It seemed like she was doing a decent job of getting her act back together. Naively, at the time I wondered why she went on “Good Morning America” to announce her addiction when she’d fallen under the radar – it wasn’t like the paparazzi were stalking her or she’d gotten arrested by the cops. Then I realized it was a good story and got her back into the news, which is what she needed if she wanted to resurrect her acting career, as she claimed. Currently the gigs aren’t coming in droves, though she is the host of the prestigious “Pants off Dance off” where contestants strip down to their unmentionables while dancing to music. I smell an Emmy coming that show’s way! No wait, that’s not what I smell.

I remember seeing pictures from Jodie’s 2002 wedding, and it was the most traditional looking event I’d ever seen, complete with the poofiest veil worn since 1989. Candace Cameron was her maid of honor, and Candace’s daughter was her flower girl. It was one of those weddings that makes you think, “Hey, this girl won’t be shooting meth anytime soon.” But I guess that’s part of my naiveté. Let’s hope this works out better.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Jodie Sweetin is shown in the header image on 6/28 at a Pink Taco Restaurant opening in Century City, California. Thanks to WENN for this picture.

It used to be that fashion magazines counseled sternly and menacingly against wearing sandals or pumps with an ankle strap. “It interrupts the line of the leg!” “It creates instant cankles!” “It ruins a long, lean look!” To be perfectly honest, a fear of ankle straps threw its dark shadow onto my footwear shopping expeditions for several years.

Fast forward to 2006. Style “rules” are a little more lax than they once were (for example, “avoid anything worn in the 1980s” used to be a pretty firm one, but we all know what happened there), and the ankle strap appears to be making a comeback. A few wardrobe tips to keep in mind if you purchase a pair:

- This is a look best pulled off by those with slim calves. If yours are more robust, recall that no outfit has ever been ruined by a nice pump.

- A thin ankle strap is more forgiving than a thick one (only very tall and lanky Gisele Bundchen types should attempt an ankle “cuff”, as pictured here on Mischa Barton).

- More women can wear an open-toe shoe with an ankle strap (a la Beyoncé here) than a closed-toe one, so when it doubt, go for the shoe that lets you show off your pedicure.

- Do not wear opaque tights. Too many blocks of solid color; not enough “leg” feeling.

- Do not wear a skirt that hits lower than mid-thigh.

- Do not wear anything remotely frumpy as a top or jacket (ankle straps can quickly turn a conservative jacket into a horror of dowdiness).

To see several ankle strap “don’ts” in action at once, take a look at this shot of actress Marg Helgenberger at the premiere of Blood Diamond. Yep, that about sums it up.

There’s plenty of news of A C-Listers getting shut out of events this morning. Like Paris Hilton, The Olsen Twins were turned away at the door. Unlike Paris Hilton, they were invited to the party but simply failed to RSVP:

The party probably sucked anyway. The French aren’t known for their hospitality, and I’m speaking from personal experience here.

Maybe they weren’t let in because summer is barely over and Mary-Kate was wearing fur. Is it just me, or does Ashley look like she had some bad work done on her face?

Here they are at the Balenciaga Paris Launch in New York recently. [via]