TV's Olsen Twins: Twice the Power!

By: Liz Smith

Twin Power!
Get up close with the Olsen twins, Ashley and Mary-Kate, as they talk about twinhood, fighting over the remote and their new show, "Two of a Kind."

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This month we headed off to California for a photo shoot with the Olsen Twins. Here's what happened behind the scenes (from top to bottom): Mary-Kate and Ashley couldn't stop laughing during their head-to-head shot. They bent themselves into pretzels playing a game of Twister and only fell once. Finally, they posed with a giant-and really heavy!--remote control.

They also danced and sang along with the music that was blasting through the studio, joked around with their dad and practiced their cover pose by bouncing on a trampoline. Check out what they had to say on page 30.

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Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, those talented twins, get their own TV series with "Two of a Kind"

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have been stars since they were in diapers. After sharing the role of Michelle Tanner on "Full House" for nine years, the twins took three years off - from sitcoms. But they kept mighty busy starring in TV movies while their videos, books and records sold millions.

The twins, now 12, return to sitcoms in "Two of a Kind." On the show, they live with their single dad, who hires one of his quirky students to take care of the apir. This time it's twice as nice, because each girl gets her own role. D.A. hung out with the twins, who showed us "two of a kind" can beat a "full house"!

On your new show, Mary-Kate plays a tomboy, while Ashley likes school and boys. How does that compare with real life?
Ashley: Well, the writers played off how we actually are, but exaggerated it.
Mary-Kate: I wouldn't say I'm a tomboy. I just like sports more than Ashley does. I'd rather throw on jeans or shorts, and Ashley would rather fix her hair and put on a little bit makeup. But we're basically the same as each other.

Did you help decorate your bedroom on the TV show?
Ashley: Not really. They showed us stuff and asked if we liked it. They had Leonardo DiCaprio [posters] all over the wall, and we don't really like him, so they took them down.
Mary-Kate: Then they put horse and football and sports stuff in there.

On "Full House" you had Comet the dog. Do you want to have a dog on "Two of a Kind"?
Ashley: Yeah. We're going to get one in an upcoming episode.
Mary-Kate: A Rottweiler or a boxer, maybe. Or a German Shepherd.
Ashley: Or a golden retriever.

Do you have pets in real life?
Ashley: We have four dogs: Bismarch, Tiger, Mikey and Jessica. And Mary-Kate has a pony.
Mary-Kate: Her name is CD - her show name is Compact Disc.

So you obviously both like dogs - how about cats?
Ashley: I don't like cats
Mary-Kate: You don't? I thought you loved cats."
Ashley: I used to , but I don't anymore. Kittens are cute, but I don't like cats because of their claws and fleas. I get big bites when they get fleas.

Whoa! So not even twins know everything about each other! All right, back to TV- do you ever fight over the remote?
Ashley: Sometimes we fight over what channel we want to watch.
Mary-Kate: Well, if I don't like something that Ashley's watching, we'll switch back and forth during commercials.

Do you have a tutor on the set or are you home-schooled?
Mary-Kate: We have a tutor when we travel. But we go to regular school when we're not working, which is fun because we get to see our friends.

How did you celebrate your 12th birthday?
Mary-Kate: We had a coed party with a Moon Bounce at our house.
Ashley: The boys had to go home at the end of the party, but the girls spent the night.

Which of your videos was the most fun to make?
Mary-Kate: Hawaiian Beach Party and Birthday Party [both from the You're Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley's series]. For the Hawaiian video, we went to Hawaii and had fun surfing and smorkeling. And when we made Birthday Party, we went to Magic Mountain. We rode all the roller coasters, like Riddler's Revenge, Batman, Viper and Superman. We were there before the park opened, so we didn't have to wait in line!

Do you use a secret language to talk with each other?
Ashley: We can look at each other and know what the other one is thinking.
Mary-Kate: Yeah, like if we see someone we don't really like, we'll look at each other at the same time and just keep walking.

We head you get a $7 weekly allowance - what chores do you have to do?
Mary-Kate: We both have to clean our rooms. I feed the dogs every day and take them out once in a while to train them.
Ashley: I have to vacuum.

Would your motto be "twice as nice" or "double trouble"?
Mary-Kate: Twice as nice. We don't really give each other a lot of trouble. And...
Ashley: ...we don't get into that much trouble.