Applause For Our Girls

Applause for our girls, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, who brought $150 shoes to the needy barefoot children of Honduras to be philanthropic whilst promoting the new collection brought by The Row+ TOMS partnership.  Why be practical about it and go for quantity when you can give the impoverished fashionable wool and cashmere blends with lamb leather lining and black suede insoles?!  Suddenly, I'm reminded of Amaya and Colin providing blow pops to starving Indian children on Real World: Hawaii.

Our Olsens have been having some rough times lately.  Mary Kate had a public breakdown in NYC and the tabloids are fueling speculation that it is about Heath Ledger and being just blocks away from where he died.  Considering that the twins ''run'' their business out of Manhattan, MK was probably just being a hot mess.

MK and A have also made news for designing a $34,000 croc-skin backpack for The Row.  A photograph of Ashley sporting the bag for the paparazzi was shown on this week's Fashion Police.  In the words of Joan Rivers, "It is amazing that she sports a $34,000 bag and still goes to bed hungry every night."




Meanwhile, their younger sister, Elizabeth Olsen, whom you may remember from cameos in their insipid (yet profitable) direct-to-video features, has become the darling of the film festival circuit.  Watching Elizabeth, one is able to imagine what the twins would look like without the surgery and with an actual education.  Elizabeth has done the respectable thing, studied acting, and is making her film debut in a tale of a girl escaping from a cult.  Unfortunately, Mary Kate is only cast to play herself (a struggle.)