In the summer of 2007, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen hosted a battle of the bands on their website mary-kateandashley.com. Canadian indie pop band Bad Flirt won with their fun, upbeat and original rock sound. After that, there didn’t seem to be much of an Olsen relationship with the band. The girls eventually launched their Song of the Week feature and didn’t host another Battle of the Bands this summer.

“It just happened,” vocalist Jasamine White-Gluz said in an interview with the National Post, about the Battle of the Band. “They had tweens vote (for the bands). It was the stupidest thing. But it was cool.”

Things have been good for Bad Flirt. They’ve become fairly well-known and have been touring constantly for the past two years. The National Post profiled them today and they revealed and interesting aspect of their relationship with DualStar I had never heard before-MK and Ashley were originally interested in managing Bad Flirt!

“For a while, the Olsen twins wanted to manage our band, then nothing,” Jasamine tells the Post. “They dropped us so fast. I guess they didn’t like us in the end. We did a low-budget video for them that never saw the light of day. Then, c’est tout.”

It sounds like this happened at the time MK and Ashley were looking at expanding their fashion empire and decided to take their company in that direction, as opposed to a musical one. There’s nothing wrong with that-these decisions are just business-but it’s too bad they didn’t explain it to Bad Flirt.

Not that it matters. They seem to be doing pretty well without any Olsen guidance!

Yesterday Forbes released a list of the highest paid “tweens” in Hollywood–but no one on the list is actually a tween!

Most are teenagers. However, Forbes clarifies this by stating this list consists of celebs who make their money largely off the tween demographic.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen came in at #3.

Beating them was singing superstar Miley Cyrus and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, who both came in at #1, raking in $25 million each last year. Forbes estimates MK and Ashley’s earnings were $15 million, with most of that coming from DualStar and their product lines associated with that.

Rounding out the top ten were the Jonas Brothers, Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale, Emma Watson, Hilary Duff, Rupert Grint, and Vanessa Hudgens.

It was certainly a good year for all things High School Musical and Harry Potter!

Diane Reichenberger, the CEO of Dualstar Entertainment Group, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s company, visited Harvard Business School the other day to talk about celebrity branding and marketing. She has been CEO of Dualstar since 2005.

Here are some of the highlights, as outlined by the Harbus:

On Identity: In the past, Ashley Olsen and Mary-Kate Olsen struggled to maintain their brand identity. With the help of Reichenberger, they expelled categories in their product line (e.g. toothpaste) that did not fit into the image they wished to present. They are both well-respected fashion icons in the celebrity world.

On Sensitivity: The Olsen twins are blessed to have Reichenberger as their CEO. She truly cares for the reputation and security and safety of the Olsen twins and their family. She also understands that she is working with a company where the average age is twenty-six years - an age where one thinks s/he knows everything about the world. This has only taught her to conduct business intuitively and to always present many options to the company.

On Celebrity: In the USA, celebrity is taking on a creepy addiction. According to Reichenberger, celebrity branding has swept the county. For example, Sheryl Crow will be launching her own denim line. Other examples of celebrities who have launched their own lines include Hilary Duff, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, and Shania Twain.

On Security: Celebrity branding is an extremely complicated business includes the following three elements: the legal, the PR, and the security elements. The Security Company within Dualstar deals with paparazzi-reporting, fan mail, threats, security of the stars, and security of the family of the stars.

The complete article is here. I really enjoyed it, it explores the business side of Mary-Kate and Ashley!

Mary-Kate and Ashley have released the cover of their 2008 calender. It’s from the old photoshoot that has been used on a lot of mary-kateandashley products.

Hopefully there will be newer pictures inside!

Dylan and Cole Sprouse, stars of The Suite Life with Zack and Cody were interviewed by ‘Extra TV.’

They talked about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, their relationship with Dualstar and lots of other cool stuff.

To watch the video, click here.

Stardoll, a cool site where you can go and dress your favorite celebrities virtually, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s company Dualstar have teamed up to bring you even more awesome virtual fashion choices.

According to Digital Media Wire,

Los Angeles - Stardoll, an entertainment site for teen girls that features virtual dress-up dolls, announced this week that it has formed a partnership with Dualstar Entertainment Group, which manages consumer products for actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The deal will provide Stardoll’s 10 million registered members access to mary-kateandashley brand virtual clothing and accessories. The celebrities will also interact with users via their “Real Celebrity” pages on Stardoll, and judge an online fashion show and other contests. The site will also be updated with video, music and photos of Mary-Kate and Ashley.

To check out the Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls, or to join, click here.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were photographed going to several business meetings yesterday.

I think Ashley looks very chic, but Mary-Kate could be more pulled together. I love her sunglasses though!

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Dualstar Entertainment Group hires interns every summer to help with the on-goings in the office. This year, Sarina was lucky enough to work for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

Check out what she had to say on Mary-Kate and Ashley’s blog about this awesome experience:

Hey All!

My name is Sarina. I’m wrapping up my summer internship at Dualstar. I attend school in New York, but thankfully managed to make Los Angeles my home for the summer. While all of you were vacationing on the beach this summer, I spent my time in a cubicle. But wait! It’s not what you think! My official title was Marketing and Publicity Intern, but I’ve really had a chance to be part of everything that goes on in the office. I even got to meet Mary-Kate and Ashley!

So what exactly did I do at Dualstar? I spent a lot of time working with the mary-kateandashley products. I put together gift bags, including the ones CosmoGirl! gave away earlier this summer. I worked on mary-kateandashley.com, their official website and helped on some projects with the new Sprouse clothing line. A major project I worked on was scanning press clippings, which are articles and photos that feature mary-kateandashley products. I used the clippings to compile press books of all of the fashion-related press that Ashley and Mary-Kate have received over the past six months.

Being in the business world, it’s very important to learn about all of the different aspects of a company. Ashley and Mary-Kate are my age and have already accomplished so much; they’re very involved with every part of the company. I’m so thankful for everything I’ve learned here… and it didn’t hurt that the office was such a fun place to work!

Enjoy the rest of your summer – spend a few extra hours at the beach for me!

– Sarina

Lucky girl!

Ashley Olsen was photographed going to the Dualstar offices on August 3rd.

Another Olsen twin, another fabulous outfit!

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The Disney show, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program.

It stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s mini-moguls in training, Dylan and Cole Sprouse.

The Sprouse Bros. line is overseen by Mary-Kate and Ashley’s company, Dualstar.

The boys currently have a books series, The Revelation (Sprouse Bros. 47 R.O.N.I.N.), and a clothing line, too.

Congratulations Dylan and Cole!

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