Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's company faces court over intern pay claims

The former child-stars face having their company sued due to "mistreatment" allegations
The sisters themselves are not implicated in the alleged mistreatment
Stephen Lovekin/Getty
Charlie Teather12 August 2015

Mary-Kate and Ashley have gone from being two adorable child-actresses to two incredibly successful fashion designers, but their billion-dollar empire has been accused of not sharing enough of its wealth with their interns, according to a lawsuit.

While the twins themselves are not implicated in the alleged mistreatment, their Dualstar Entertainment Group - which produces movies, TV programmes, magazines and more - faces a class-action suit that alleges "wage theft", claiming the company failed to pay about 40 past and present interns who have worked for them.

CFDA Awards Ceremony 2015

1/26

Speaking to Page Six, Shahista Lalani, a Parsons School of Design graduate who worked in Manhattan under the head technical designer for the Olsens’ fashion label, The Row, for five months, said of the twins: "They're really nice people. They were never mean to anyone. They're business people."

Although she claims her experience with a designer for the The Row under whom she worked was less positive. "She was very demanding. I was doing the work of three interns. It was like 100 degrees outside. I’d just be sweating to death. I probably carried like 50 pounds worth of trench coats."

"When we weren’t doing something, they’d be like, ‘Organize the buttons in the back by color code'. You’re cleaning. You don’t get a set 15-minute break. You just go with their crazy flow. You just [got] caught up in the pressure."

"You’re like an employee, except you’re not getting paid. They’re kind of mean to you. Other interns have cried. I’d see a lot of kids crying doing coffee runs, photocopying stuff."

Lalani also claims she was hospitalised for dehydration because of the job’s demands.

In a statement to the Evening Standard, Dualstar representative Annett Wolf wrote: "As an initial matter, Dualstar is an organization that is committed to treating all individuals fairly and in accordance with all applicable laws."

"The allegations in the complaint filed against Dualstar are groundless, and Dualstar will vigorously defend itself against plaintiff's claims in court, not before the media. Dualstar is confident that once the true facts of this case are revealed, the lawsuit will be dismissed in its entirety."

Read More

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in