• November 29, 2005

AOL will offer users a series of original podcasts featuring Brittany and Lisa Gastineau, the mother-daughter stars of E!'s reality series "Gastineau Girls," set to debut its second season today. The podcasts will feature the two Gastineaus riffing on topics such as dating tips, fashion advice, and gossip. As part of the deal, AOL will also sponsor the full broadcast of the premiere of the "Gastineau Girls" on E!, allowing it to run ad-free. The podcasts will be promoted on the E! show, and AOL will promote the podcasts and the broadcast across the AOL network, including the AOL.com home page, the AOL Instant Messenger service, AOL Music, and AOL Radio. The podcasts will be hosted on AOL's Podcast page, which launched in mid-September with a variety of original content, as well as tools to help users create their own podcasts. The page itself is sponsored and has branding and display ads--currently by Lexus--but no ads will be run within the podcasts themselves. -- Shankar Gupta