By Dave Shiflett Wall Street Journal The Olsen twins – actresses, designers, fashion icons and entrepreneurs – sensed a general wonderment about who has been instrumental in inspiring and guiding their sparkling journey to the center of world consciousness, a project also important, Ashley adds, because she’s taking her life “to the next level” and that trek “requires you to pay attention to everyone and everything.” Assisted by writer Derek Blasberg, these interviews with 23 or so “creative visionaries” who left their marks on the girls were “treated like a religious pilgrimage,” albeit one devoid of holy men or women, or for that matter serious authors, scientists, economists or even apostles of the high colonic. They instead focus on A-listers from the world of glitz who share iconic thoughts, smocks, boots, art and home furnishings. We behold interior architect David Collins’s dip-dyed and embroidered curtains -- to die for no doubt -- and the paintings of George Condo, which in some parts of the world would still attract torch-bearing mobs. His Jesus appears to be transubstantiating into a cloud of Fruity Pebbles while his God looks like a Hobbit who just swallowed a bad oyster. Photographer Terry Richardson shares his picture of Robin and Batman smooching it up – is nothing left sacred? – and we also get plenty of inspiration messages, including Diane von Furstenberg’s take on human husbandry: “We have to be very careful who we have sex with. So you better know whom you’re spreading the seed with. Even if there’s no seed being spread.” Karl Lagerfeld, meanwhile, notes that jeans “are becoming too tight. You can kill yourself in those jeans.” Ashley and Mary-Kate also focus inward, submitting to the “Proust Questionnaire,” which reveals “true characteristics and emotions.” Ashley reveals Jane Austen as her favorite prose writer and Freud as her favorite poet, while Mary-Kate’s favorite occupation is “being a full-time Gemini” who likes Plato and Kafka. The twins include plenty of photos of themselves, sometimes looking like innocent schoolgirls, other times like drug-addicted hookers, along with a host of Polaroid snapshots – Polaroid being this crew’s true Boswell.
