They Thought I Was You

What is your favorite Mary-Kate and Ashley podcast doing watching a Hilary Duff movie?! First of all, don't come at us, second of all, of course we are.

During our deep dive of Mary-Kate and Ashley's When in Rome (2002), many of our listeners pointed out to us that we *needed* to watch The Lizzie McGuire Movie (2003). Not only did it come out just one year later and take place in the same city, but it also follows the Dualstar movie formula to a T. So we did the unthinkable: we reviewed our very first project with absolutely no involvement from Mary-Kate or Ashley.

And yet, Mary-Kate and Ashley's influence is all over this movie. Mainly, the premise that Lizzie travels to a foreign country and falls in love with a boy (ALSO named Paolo!!), but even the wardrobe, mopeds, fashion montages, sightseeing montages, and the inexplicably identical strangers has the Olsen Twins written all over it. In fact, we think it would have been better *as* a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, so naturally, we retroactively rewrite the movie for them and make it way, way better.

We also bring back one of our favorite games, "Acting Tracker," but this time, instead of comparing Mary-Kate and Ashley's acting performance, we compare Mary-Kate, Ashley and Hilary Duff's performances in these two movies (and generally).

*This podcast was recorded July 9th 2023, before the SAG strike began. We stand with SAG and the WGA while they negotiate for a fair contract.

Watch the video version of this ep by subscribing to our Patreon here.

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Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
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Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Have other Mary-Kate and Ashley adjacent projects you'd like us to talk about? Email us at: [email protected]

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Ciao! Bellissimo! Rigatoni! Today we travel to Italy, but not only that, we also travel back in time to 2002 when Mary-Kate and Ashley posted their virtual diary of their European travels on mary-kateandashley.com. And we read every single entry.

Mary-Kate and Ashley's trip first starts in Venice where they buy towels and etched glass, then they fly to Florence where they shop at the Prada and Dolce & Gabbana outlet stores (because they're just like us!), then of course to Rome to film their infamous classic, When in Rome and encounter an Italian labor strike, and finally they end their trip in London with a full press tour of their clothing line. 

While it's adorable reading about the things Mary-Kate and Ashley ate, the tourists attractions they visited, and all the times they popped, we were surprised these diary entries had a glaring omission-- their boyfriends! We've all seen the pictures of Mary-Kate and Ashley on the streets of Rome with their beaus during the filming of When in Rome, and yet they never come up in the virtual diary. So we go back and look at the photos of them and their boyfriends in Rome that our pal Derrick Dobson shared with us, and we examine why people thought these were "controversial" at the time.

We hope this episode gets you excited about your summer travels, and also makes you think twice about whether someone is holding a beer or a can of Pringles!

Watch the video version of this ep by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Video we talk about: Behind the Scenes of When in Rome

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TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Email us questions at: [email protected]

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Hello our beloved listener/learns-- we're back!!

Today, we're soft launching our new season with a mini episode all about When in Rome's alternate ending. This was shared with us after we recorded our When in Rome episode, which is tragic because this ending changes everything. We could have talked for 5 hours about it, but we kept it under 30 minutes because we know you all have BBQ's to attend, fireworks to watch, and cute food to eat.

So please enjoy this bite-size ep, complete with what we've been up to, what to expect from us this summer, and some hot hot tips on upgrading your morning coffee routine.

Watch the video version of this ep by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Email us questions at: [email protected]

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Happy Birthday, Mary-Kate and Ashley!! To celebrate this national holiday, we decided to do the most exciting thing we've ever done-- host a real life birthday party for Mary-Kate and Ashley ourselves! And unlike the time Becca was a child and saw the commercial for "You're Invited to Mary-Kate and Ashley's Sleepover Party" and thought she was literally invited, this time you actually are!

We sent a call out on our Instagram and invited our friends from Patreon to join us virtually to celebrate, and we had an epic party with folks joining from around the globe. We ate cookies with Mary-Kate and Ashley's faces on them, played Dualstar MadLibs, and even brainstormed our own fantasy Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, "Once Upon a Farm," which we're pretty sure is legitimately great.

We also sent Mary-Kate and Ashley birthday wishes for the future and gratitude for all they've done and given to us personally through their decades of work. Hosting this party really showed us how much of a positive impact they had on so many of us, and it was truly heartwarming to hear everyone's stories about how these women touched their lives.

So assuming Mary-Kate and/or Ashley are reading & listing to this right now-- THANK YOU for being the heroes that you are, and we hope you have the most amazing day!

Want to participate in the next Mary-Kate and Ashley party? Subscribe to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Email us questions at: [email protected]

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Today we watch what (we think) has been collectively agreed upon by Mary-Kate and Ashley fans as their worst movie. The movie that for some singlehandedly ended their Mary-Kate and Ashley obsession: When in Rome.

On November 26th, 2002, When in Rome was released straight to DVD and VHS and followed Charli (Mary-Kate) and Leila (Ashley) as they interned for a top fashion designer in Rome, Italy. Where they came from, how they got there, and why these two sisters share a highly competitive internship we may never know, but we DO know that they get to share a boarding house with other interns, and they are HOT.

But that doesn't really matter because their boss is trying to sabotage them and so is one of the other interns, but that doesn't matter because the rich fashion designer saves them. But he wants THEM to save his nephew, and they want HIM to date their other boss, but Mary-Kate wants to kiss an Italian boy and Ashley wants to prove herself, so they concoct a plan to get back at their enemies by making clothes.

So, as you can see, the plot is a little hard to follow, but we do our best to talk through this movie that we  barely recall seeing as children. We talk about the reasons this movie lacks the magic of the other ones, the ways it could have been better, and applaud the moments that sometimes work (like the entire third act, as Lani claims).

Ultimately after watching this movie and its undeniable dip in quality, we realized there's still so much to unpack about this era of Mary-Kate and Ashley's careers. We'll be taking a break for the next few weeks, but when we come back, we're determined to dig even deeper into this often overlooked era (basically late '02-'03, because one year is a lifetime in Mary-Kate and Ashley years).

So slip on your pin striped button down, flat iron the hell out of your entire head of hair, get your chunky belt and your clunky clogs, because today, we're going to Roma!

Watch the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here and watch When in Rome on our angel SimplyOlsen's magical link here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Was When in Rome your favorite Mary-Kate and Ashley movie?  PLEASE tell us why: [email protected]

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Last episode, we used the Wayback Machine to take a deep dive into marykateandashley.com. We clicked through the clickboards, sent a web-based email, and learned all about the hot new "fash" tips and best highlights for your hair (not the kind you're thinking). But after recording our episode, we realized there was one link we didn't click: the full transcript of a Q&A with Mary-Kate and Ashley themselves (?!).

So today, we do a dramatic reenactment of the entire chat, with Becca playing Mary-Kate and Lani playing Ashley, of course. We're reminded of chaotic early internet chat rooms as we try to decipher this absolutely unhinged transcript, and our hearts bleed for the fans who cleared their entire schedules (and surgeries) to be present for this mayhem.

Things also take a dark turn when one fan asks how much Mary-Kate and Ashley weigh, which influences several other fans, who had previously been asking how Mary-Kate and Ashley do their hair and their favorite stores to shop at, to also ask how much they weigh, and creates a mob of preteens demanding to know their weight. Much to these fans' dismay and our relief, Mary-Kate and Ashley never reveal their weight or their personal emails.

This is one wild trip, so we hope you're ready! And most importantly, we hope you saw the 1999 film Superstar, because it comes up. A LOT.

Click through the website we visit here and watch the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Were you part of this chat and want to tell us your story? Email us at: [email protected]

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In the late 90s, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen launched one of the most epic websites of all time: marykateandashley.com. For today's episode, because of a wonderful tool called The Wayback Machine, we were able to travel back in time to visit this website in all its glory.

In typical They Thought I Was You fashion (or shall we say "fash"), we thought we could cover every iteration of this iconic website throughout the years, from its launch until it went defunct in the 00s, in just one episode. Then, we landed on a snapshot of the site from August 22nd, 2000, with almost all of its graphics still in tact and a ton of links still clickable, and we realized there is waaaay too much to talk about in one single episode. So today, we spend the entire episode unpacking this one moment in time-- this precious summer of 2000 before Mary-Kate and Ashley entered high school-- and how it was reflected on Mary-Kate and Ashley's website.

There is so much more here than we expected -- fashion tips, fitness advice, chat rooms, calendars, ecards, web-based emails from Mary-Kate and Ashley themselves,  CLICKBOARDS (?!), a newspaper simulator, an entire virtual magazine dedicated to their dolls -- the list quite literally goes on and on.  We click through as much as we physically and emotionally are able to, and unpack how precious and bizarre the early internet was.

So weave in some beads & ribbons to highlight your hair, put on your Mary Janes and get that summer denim halter top out from the back of your closet, because we're visiting August 22nd, 2000, and it is one wild ride.

Click through the website we visit here and watch the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Did we miss your favorite part of Mary-Kate and Ashley's website? Email us at: [email protected]

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DISCLAIMER: We had an audio malfunction while recording, so the quality of the audio in this episode isn't great. But the conversation is, so please bear with us!

On October 27, 2000, Mary-Kate and Ashley released their first video for PlayStation, Mary-Kate and Ashley: Magical Mystery Mall. They already had some success with their Gameboy games The New Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley  and Get a Clue, and Dance Party of the Century  for PC, and this game ushered in a wave of games for more advanced systems.

Neither Lani nor Becca has a PlayStation, so we couldn't play this game ourselves, but luckily we found a playthrough of the entire game on YouTube. So today, we review this game from its promising opening scene to its nonsensical final game. We also talk about how companies poorly marketed video games to girls in the early 2000s, the prevailing tendency to make low-quality games for girls, and how that fed into the toxic gaming culture of following decades.

Ultimately, there are parts of Magical Mystery Mall that are genuinely lovable and hilarious like any good Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, and parts that completely missed the mark and left us disappointed and frankly a little sad. But most of all, even through the terrible graphics and cringeworthy soundbites, Mary-Kate and Ashley's je ne sais quoi that makes everything they touch turn to gold still comes through.

You can watch all of the playthrough and the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Did you play Mary-Kate and Ashley's video games? Email us at: [email protected]

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We have finally come down from the high of having one of the best conversations of our lives with Jane Sibbett two weeks ago, and we are back this week to talk about serious business: Mary-Kate and Ashley's enormous power in 2002.

Today, we're talking about a feature "Downtown 20/20" did on the Olsens in February 2002. This caught our attention a few weeks ago when we were researching our Young Hollywood on Late Night episode and because this interview actually reveals a lot about Mary-Kate and Ashley's business at this time. Mainly in what Robert Thorne says to Connie Chung: the girls could not fire him.

This comment sent us on a tailspin, and we talk about the implications of what exactly that means, and how it conflicts with the "we make all the decisions" narrative they were pushing during this era.  We also discuss the ridiculousness of Connie Chung's questioning whether Mary-Kate and Ashley "going the Britney Spears route," when at this point in history, Britney Spears was starring in Crossroads and dating Justin Timberlake-- a relatively uncontroversial time for the pop princess.

Finally, we discuss why everyone was obsessed with speculating when Mary-Kate and Ashley would break apart, because the world doesn't have "much of a need for 35 year old twins." And we're so proud of them for proving those naysayers wrong.

You can watch all of the 20/20 segment and the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Are you Meghan Trainor and want to record an episode with us? Email us at: [email protected]

And for those A+ students that want to prepare for next week's ep: Mary-Kate and Ashley's Magical Mystery Mall Playthrough

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Yes, you read that correctly. Today we're talking to THAT Jane. The queer icon of Friends. The terrible, fabulous villain of It Takes Two. Ms. Clarice Kensington herself, whom we absolutely adoooooore, Jane Sibbett.

We were thrilled to sit down with Jane and talk about her career and positively iconic roles in projects that shaped our childhood. Jane told us about her early work on sitcoms like Herman's Head (which, according to Wikipedia,  is what she's "best known for"), and how that role eventually led her to her groundbreaking character on Friends. We gush over her portrayal of Carol Willick, who she could have played as a two-dimensional lesbian ex-wife for the punchline. But instead, Jane played her with love and depth, portraying a grounded lesbian marriage on prime-time television, at a time when that was not widely accepted (and could even get you blacklisted).

And of course, at the same time she was changing the hearts and minds of a nation on Friends, she was also terrorizing two twin girls at Camp Callaway as the stepmom we loved to hate in It Takes Two. We tell Jane about how watching this movie as an adult made us feel for Clarice and the pressures she was facing as an unmarried woman of a certain class, but Jane admits her approach to Clarice was much different than her role on Friends. She also shares her experience working with Mary-Kate and Ashley on set, and her biggest regret with them a few years later on the set of Friends.

Finally, Jane tells us about how the intensity of paparazzi and the media surrounding the cast of Friends made her decide to move to Hawaii after the show ended, where she began to produce and create documentaries, which eventually led her to the work she's doing today as a spiritual healer.

We were so blown away by Jane's love, kindness, poise, openness, and general aura as a human, and we hope you are too. Watch this full interview by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Follow Jane on Social media!
Instagram: @janesibbett
More about Jane's work: janesibbett.com

It Takes Two behind the scenes videos:

• Part 1: https://youtu.be/IldhSovlTb8
• Part 2: https://youtu.be/hQNuQ3hJQjk 
• Part 3: https://youtu.be/BYKl-LNmjIY 
• Part 4: https://youtu.be/93FFHXGfqPM 

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Are you a producer and want to help us make It Takes Two: Back from Tibet? Email us at: [email protected]

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