Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Are Getting Dolled Up for Mattel

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.- 12-year-old superstars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have teamed with #1 toy company Mattel, Inc. (NYSE: MAT) to introduce fashion dolls created in their likenesses, along with four separate sets of fashions, as celebrity friends of the Barbie(R) doll. Mary-Kate and Ashley will have an active role in the design and development of the fashion dolls and accessories, which are expected to launch in early 2000.

The agreement was signed by Mattel and Dualstar Consumer Products, the merchandise licensing division of Mary-Kate and Ashley's Dualstar Entertainment Group. The announcement was made today by Anne Parducci, senior vice president of marketing, Barbie, and Dualstar attorney Robert Thorne of Thorne and Company. The deal was brokered for Dualstar by Thorne and partner Gregory Redlitz.

"The agreement with Mary-Kate and Ashley brings America's most popular child celebrities to the world's most popular fashion doll, Barbie(R)," said Parducci. "Our team is excited to work with the Olsens to develop a new fashion doll line in their image."

"With its hugely successful Barbie(R) and American Girl(R) brands, Mattel was Dualstar's first and only choice to extend Mary-Kate and Ashley's franchise and brand into the doll arena," said Thorne.

Mattel and Dualstar will conduct a multi-faceted cross-promotional campaign. Mattel will produce and air a national television spot featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley to launch the dolls. In addition, each package of dolls will contain a multi-page full-color insert featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley's television, film, video, publishing and record projects, while the dolls will be featured in Dualstar Publications' best- selling book series packaged by Parachute Press and published by Harper Entertainment, in trailers and inserts in Dualstar Video's multi-platinum 30-volume video catalog distributed by Warner Home Video, in Dualstar Records catalog product, and in Mary-Kate and Ashley's official fan club publications.

Mary-Kate and Ashley are America's #1 child celebrities. Their Dualstar Entertainment Group is one of the most successful producers of entertainment for children, including theatrical films, telefilms, television series, home videos, records and publishing. Dualstar Productions in association with Miller Boyett Warren Productions produces Mary-Kate and Ashley's current ABC primetime series "Two of A Kind," anchoring ABC's coveted TGIF programming block. Dualstar Video has been ranked by Billboard Magazine #2 only to Walt Disney Home Video in live-action direct-to-video product, with sales of over 17 million copies. Dualstar Publications has two successful book series in the marketplace, with over 8 million copies in print. Dualstar Productions is currently producing two new movies featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley.