Mary-Kate Olsen's New French Friend Olivier Sarkozy Could be Her CFDA Date

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Mary-Kate Olsen and her twin sister Ashley Olsen have a multimillion dollar clothing empire that includes the high end womenswear line, The Row, a handbag collection, their lower-priced Elizabeth and James line and a wildly successful online presence at stylemint.com.

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For their work on The Row, the Olsens are nominated for the second time for a Council of Fashion Designers of America's Womenswear Designer of the Year Award, to be presented at the annual June 4th event -- where Johnny Depp will also receive the Fashion Icon award. 

The designing twins were nominated in 2011 but lost to Prabal Gurung. This year they face stiff competition from Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler and Marc Jacobs.

And now that cozy photos of Mary-Kate with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s half-brother Olivier Sarkozy have hit the Web, many in the fashion world wonder if Mary-Kate will bring her her new friend to the prestigious event. He certainly seems to have very French savoir-faire for fashion.

The designer, 25, and the 42-year-old asset manager were recently spotted at Madison Square Garden watching the New York Knicks play the Los Angeles Clippers. The handsome Frenchman was photographed stroking the young designer's hair as they spoke and and sat very close.

Sarkozy, the managing director for Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group is divorced and has two children. He dated Stella Schnabel, actress and daughter of artist/director Julian Schnabel for a year before their split in March.