dear abby and ann landers

[jb_farley]

i know this may seem like idle rumourmongering, but has it been established that Dear Abby (Abigail Van Buren (sp?)) and Ann Landers (Ann Landers) are actually identical twins, and not simply one woman doubling her market share?

googling was of no help.

jb

p.s.- i know, of course, that the whole advice-column-duality could also be explained by one man doubling his market share with a flattering found photo, but that's just paranoid crazy talk.

[iconoplast]

http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Landers.html says they're twins, and reveals their secret identities, so to speak. However, "Dear Abby" is no longer written by just oen person:

Pauline Phillips and Jeanne Phillips share the pseudonym Abigail Van Buren and make up the mother-daughter partnership that co-creates the most popular advice column in the world -- known for its uncommon common sense and youthful perspective.

(from http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/)

[Doug Bowe]

Well, if we're to believe the gossips Esther Pauline is Ann Landers and Pauline Esther is Abigail van Buren.
Both are supposed to be twins born of Abraham and Rebecca Friedman of Sioux City, Iowa on July 4th, 1918.
When Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer took over the advice column of the Sun-Times it had already been "Ann Landers" for 12 years.
When Pauline Esther Friedman started her advice column for the San Franciso Chronicle in 1956 she took the name Abigail van Buren.

[Milton De La Warre]

FWIW, when I was younger, friends of mine used to write goof letters to Dear Abby that she took seriously and published responses to. It seems to have been fairly easy to pull the wool over her eyes with even the most outlandish tales. I imagine there were quite a few people that did this to her.

[Cliffy]

Does anyone know the quality of the relationship between Abby and Annie (aka Pauline and Eppie)? Do they get along?

--Cliffy

[DPWhite]

There is a very cute docudrama on their lives where the woman who plays Nina on Just Shoot Me plays the twins. The Ann Landers one was quite upset at the competition initially, but from what I gather they get along well now and have for many years.