With the warmer weather upon us, Mary-Kate Olsen and her boyfriend Nate Lowman have been traveling around New York City by bicycle. While it’s a great way to get around and to get some exercise, it does have it’s challenges. You need to be aware if all sorts of elements - cars, pedestrians, other cyclists - in order to make sure your trip is quick, safe and fun.

Apparently, Mary-Kate wasn’t the most observant cyclist about a month ago. According to the National Enquirer (I know, I know), she nearly hit another cyclist while out with Nate on April 29th. Nate and Mary-Kate were biking against traffic instead of with traffic and she cut someone off and nearly hit them.

“Other bikers were riding with traffic, while Mary-Kate and Nate were riding against traffic so they should have been the ones to move out of the way,” an eyewitness reports. “But they didn’t, and Mary-Kate nearly collided with one of the bikers going the other way.”

Nate was upset with MK, as it’s not a safe cycling practice. According to the source, “he yelled, ‘You’re crazy, Mary-Kate! You almost killed us!”

While the National Enquirer posted this story, I can completely see it happening. Cyclists do what Mary-Kate did all the time. It’s easy to get caught up in the scenery or another obstacle and miss something. All I can say is, what a slow news day if this is what made it into the magazine this week.

Image: Bauer Griffin

The Tribeca Film Festival announced their jury members for this year’s crop of films and as always, it features an eclectic mix of actors, celebrities, filmmaker and more. Mary-Kate Olsen will sit on the jury for the 2009 Narrative Short category along with Thomas Haden Church, James Franco, Mary Harron, and Debra Messing.

Other jurors of interest this year include Rachel Maddow (2009 Documentary and Student Short), Rachael Ray (2009 Best New York Documentary), Meg Ryan and Uma Thurman (2009 World Narrative Competition), and Whoopi Goldberg (2009 World Documentary Competition). You can see a complete list of jurors and their categories here.

The Tribeca Film festival starts tomorrow in New York City and will run until May 3rd. Over 250 films will be screened during this week long event. The festival was founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro as a response to the 9/11 attacks. The festival’s mission is “to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience.” It’s emerged as one of the world’s leading film festivals and is a lot of fun with several events embedded in the art, fashion, music and culture of New York City.

You can see the complete line-up of films, events and more at the official website.

Image: Bauer Griffin

Mary-Kate Olsen was a presenter at the 24th annual Independent Spirit Awards on February 21. The casual indie ceremony was held in a tent on the beach in Santa Monica and honored the best in independent filmmaking in 2008.

Mary-Kate presented the award for “Best First Screenplay” with her The Wackness costar, Ben Kingsley. The Award was won by Dustin Lance Black for his film, Milk, which chronicled the life and times of America’s first elected gay official, Harvey Milk. Dustin beat out Jonathan Levine for The Wackness.

Many great films, filmmakers and actors were honored. You can see the list of nominees and winners here.

I think MK looked beautiful at the awards. I love that she was asked to present - it shows how she’s been embraced by the independent film community. In her interview with FASHION she said she has a couple projects on the table for 2009 - I wonder if any of them will be independent films!

Yahoo looked at the top 10 celebrity comebacks of 2008 and put Mary-Kate Olsen on the list at #7. They were impressed with her acting comeback, appearing in Weeds and The Wackness, furthered her fashion prowess by co-writing Influence with sister Ashley, and just looked healthier and happier than she has in a long time.

Kudos to Yahoo for recognizing MK’s achievements this year, both professionally and personally. Here’s to a long and successful career, Mary-Kate.

8-10 on the list were Rachel Zoe, Simon Baker, and Shannen Doherty. Rounding out the top six were Anne Hathaway, the gals of Sex and the City, Serena Williams, Pink, and Robert Downey Jr.

The number one comeback kid of the year? Britney Spears. I like Britney and I’m glad she’s getting her life together, but hasn’t she had a comeback every other year by now?

See the whole list and the reasons behind their choices here.

The Examiner named their top five celebrity scandals of 2008. Coming in at #2 was Mary-Kate Olsen’s mysterious involvement in the aftermath of Heath Ledger’s death. It was scandalous because it’s still unknown why the masseuse called Mary-Kate before calling 911 and why MK didn’t think to call 911 herself.

The other scandals of 2008?

#5 Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend getting arrested for money laundering

#4 Audrina Patridge accusing Lauren Conrad of hooking up with Justin-Bobby.

#3 Miley Cyrus’s near-nude photos in Vanity Fair

And the number 1 scandal of 2008?

#1 Britney Spear’s rocky year and trip to the hospital in early 2008

What I don’t understand is how the Audrina/Lauren conflict made it so high. It was a silly spat between a girl who takes herself way too seriously (Lauren) and a girl who is too dumb to know better (Audrina). I like these girls and I like The Hills, but this was a silly rumor started by someone who wanted to make it on tv and it worked. The fact these two couldn’t put that into perspective irks me.

As for MK being on the list, I understand it, but it’s more mysterious and not so much scandulous. All the police involved clearly stated no wrong-doing was done and that both MK and the masseuse were looking out for Heath’s best interested. Just because we are interested in the lives of celebrities doesnt mean we have the right to know everything.

What do you think of this list? What do you think was the biggest scandal of 2008?

People has put together their Best of 2008, including everything from style to entertainment to gossip and more. Their best designers of 2008? Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. To commerate the year MK and Ashley burst onto the fashion scene, People put together a retrospective slide show, showcasing the various celebrities seen sporting their contemporary sportswear line, Elizabeth & James, this year.

Celebs who did so include Lauren Conrad, Nicole Richie, Beyonce, Rihanna, Karina Smirnoff, Katie Holmes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Carrie Underwood, Heidi Klum, Vanessa Hudgens, Leann Rimes and Amanda Bynes.

See the slideshow here.

It’s great to see MK and Ash get recognized for all their hard work. They’ve put a lot into their fashion line and it deserves to be held in regard with other fashion designers and not cast-off as another celebrity line. What a great 2008 these girls had!

Forbes released the list of the wealthiest celebrities under 30. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen clocked in at #10, making $15 million dollars last year. Forbes cites residuals from the DVDs and mary-kateandashley empire as well as their new fashion ventures and MK’s recent acting gigs as sources for their wealth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Beyonce ($80 million), Justin Timberlake ($44 million), Kobe Bryant ($39 million), LeBron James ($38 million), Roger Federer ($35 million), Keira Knightley ($32 million), Maria Sharapova ($36 million), Daniel Radcliffe ($25 milion), and Miley Cyrus ($25 million).

It bothers me that they put MK and Ashley together in lists like sure. Yes, they make their money together, but they are two separate people. Even calling them #10 and #11 and sourcing their income together would be fine. However, Forbes is a legitimate business magazine. Maybe because MK and Ashley own DualStar together as well as property and resources together, it’s difficult to map out their individual earnings.

Sadly, Mary-Kate Olsen won’t be nominated for an Emmy this year. While she was on the long list for Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, she didn’t make the cut. The original 41 entrants were cut down to 11 after the first round of voting. The top 11 then must submit a video for members of the academy to review.

Image used with permission from Showtime

A lot of older, more seasoned actresses were selected including Edie Falco, Elaine Stritch, Carrie Fisher, Polly Bergen, Shirley Knight and Kathryn Joosten.

However, MK has no need to worry! With her role on Samantha Who? coming up, it looks like she’ll have lots of opportunities for Emmy nods in the future!

Mary-Kate Olsen will be on the cover of the July issue of Elle. They have the cover story online, which you can read here.

There’s some great quotes from Olsen friends in the article too, ike this one from Diane Von Furstenberg:

“Mary-Kate is fragile yet strong. She’s an old soul in a very young girl. Hers is a story that has just begun.”

The also talk to Karl Lagerfield about why he’s such a fan of MK and Ashley, and Lauren Hutton, who is a muse for the girls.

There is also a behind-the-scenes video and photo slide show. The photos are absolutely gorgeous! They feature the Marc Jacobs headband she wore a little while ago, which explains what photo shoot she was at at the time.

Here is the behind-the scenes video. It bothers me that MK isn’t in it very much, but I love how they talk to all the stylists on set to find out how and why they created the scene they did!

I’ll have to get the magazine to see the real spread! The website says the magazine is on newsstands now, so be sure to check it out.

Image details: Chanel Tribeca Film Festival Dinner - Inside served by picapp.com

The Chicago Sun Times had a bit in ther gossip column about how Mary-Kate Olsen is still grieving over the death of her friend Heath Ledger. Not only did she lose a close friend, she’s racked with guilt about the bizarre phone calls that occured before 911 was called.

”It’s tough because Mary-Kate had strong feelings for Heath,” says their source. ”Plus, there was so much confusion with all those calls back and forth between Mary-Kate and that masseuse. Everyone involved feels guilty — because so much time was wasted before the paramedics were called.”

As for what MK and Heath’s relationship was at the time, the source says they were only friends, but that Mary-Kate wanted it to be much more.

I feel sorry for Mary-Kate. Losing a friend is always hard and having it analyzed in the news must make it that much harder.

On a semi-related note, has anyone seen the trailers for the new Batman film? It looks like Heath does a fantastic job.