Ashton Kutcher just keeps associating
himself with the wrong people. When he's not defending a convict, he's trying
to usher in questionable tech revolutions, or dealing with the backlash to his past missteps After Danny Masterson was convicted
of raping two women in 2023, some of his former co-stars came to his
defense. That included Ashton Kutcher, who appeared alongside Masterson on both That
'70s Show and The Ranch. He was particularly effusive in a character reference letter
that he sent to the court. He wrote, in part, "As a friend, Danny has been nothing
but a positive influence on me. He's an extraordinarily honest
and intentional human being." Kutcher ended his statement by arguing that
giving a father of a young daughter a harsh sentence would be an injustice. Nevertheless,
Masterson received a 30-year prison sentence. Kutcher's wife and fellow That '70s Show
co-star Mila Kunis also wrote a letter in support of Masterson. After the couple endured
backlash when their letters were made public, they issued an apology video on
Instagram. Alas, their detractors weren't exactly convinced that they were being
genuine. As an editorial on Variety put it, "If the aim was to present us with a frank dose of Ashton and Mila letting us into
their world, it missed the mark." Ashton Kutcher's troublesome 2023 continued
when he and Mila Kunis resigned from the board of Thorn, a charity fighting child
sexual abuse. This happened in the wake of the backlash of their defense of Danny
Masterson. Kutcher founded the organization back in 2012 with his then-wife Demi Moore. He
wrote a letter to the board that read in part, "I cannot allow my error in judgment
to distract from our efforts and the children we serve [...] The mission must
always be the priority and I want to offer my heartfelt apology to all victims of
sexual violence and everyone at Thorn who I hurt by what I did. And to the broader
advocacy community, I am deeply sorry. I remain proud of what we have accomplished in
the past decade and will continue to support Thorn's work. Thank you for your tireless
advocacy and dedication to this cause." Kutcher's reputation took another blow
in September 2023 when a video from 20 years earlier resurfaced online.
The clip in question was from a 2003 episode of his hidden-camera prank
show Punk'd. Kutcher was 25 at the time, while his victim in the episode, Hilary Duff, was
only 15. As Kutcher described her in the clip: "Hilary Duff is in Lizzie McGuire, she also has an album out. She's going to
be in a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen." "And she's one of the girls that we're all waiting
for to turn 18. Along with the Olsen twins." The general consensus on social
media was that Kutcher came off as a bit of a creep. As one
person put it succinctly, "Ashton Kutcher is a slime ball." As the clip spread like wildfire across
the internet, another observer declared, "[It's] absolutely insane how the '90s
and 2000s were so open about this." Kutcher's sleazy commentary about Hilary Duff
wasn't the only unsavory moment from his past that resurfaced in 2023. A clip from The
Rosie O'Donnell Show from 2002 also went viral for all the wrong reasons, and this one
was perhaps even more damaging. Kutcher was a guest on the episode alongside Mila Kunis when
the discussion turned to a wager that he and Danny Masterson had supposedly made while
filming That '70s Show. As Kunis recalled, "It was the first week [...] I
had never kissed a guy. I was a 14-year-old little girl. I was
extremely scared for my life." Kunis also revealed that Masterson offered
to give Kutcher ten dollars if he French kissed her. Kutcher cut in to clarify that
Masterson's bet was actually worth twenty bucks. Kunis ultimately revealed that she
didn't let Kutcher carry out his little plan, while O'Donnell quipped that the police
then showed up and arrested Kutcher. It wasn't just the general public who
took exception with Kutcher and Kunis' tone-deaf defense of Danny Masterson. Many
of their Hollywood peers also voiced their outrage. Christina Ricci, for example, posted
a message on Instagram that didn't specifically reference Kutcher and Kunis but did seem
to clearly allude to them. As she put it, "People we know as 'awesome guys'
can be predators and abusers, and it's tough to accept but we have to
[...] [To] discredit the abused is a crime." And several comedians utilized Kutcher and
Kunis as a punchline. After Amy Schumer, for example, caught flak for making fun
of how Nicole Kidman was sitting while attending the U.S. Open, she wrote on Instagram, "I will be asking the cast of That '70s Show to
write letters advocating for my forgiveness." Kathy Griffin, on the other hand,
wasn't exactly in a joking mood. She posted a video on TikTok in which
she discussed how her own late brother had been arrested for preying on
underage girls. As she recalled, "It was a horrible, horrible thing, and I tried
to get him caught. Now, this was my brother, so I don't want to hear about Ashton and Mila
[...] and people that feel like they had to stick up for Danny Masterson because he was their 'bro,'
he was their buddy. This was my own brother." While the fallout from defending Danny Masterson
was devastating, it wasn't as if Ashton Kutcher had the most pristine reputation to begin with.
That was plenty clear when Sharon Osbourne told E! News that he was the rudest celebrity
she's ever had the misfortune to encounter. "Oh, rude, rude, rude, rude little boy." And Osbourne wasn't done sticking
the knife in. When her daughter Kelly revealed her surprise at
her mom's beef, Sharon replied: "Yes! Dastardly little thing." Sharon didn't go into detail about why
exactly Kutcher rubbed her the wrong way, but we wouldn't be surprised if she's
not the only one who feels this way. The era when Ashton Kutcher's name on a romantic
comedy marquee was a guarantee of box office success appears to be over now. 12 years after
appearing in the ensemble flick New Year's Eve, he made his return to the genre in 2023
with Your Place or Mine, a Netflix original that co-starred Reese Witherspoon. But this
love story turned out to be a bit of a dud. As of early 2024, Your Place or Mine has a 30
percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and the critics weren't shy about wielding their sharpest takes.
As The Daily Beast's Fletcher Peters proclaimed, "Netflix's new long-distance love story
is trying to be Nora Ephron for the smartphone generation — except with none
of the charm, wit, or romantic tension." The two leads didn't exactly help matters when
they appeared at the movie's premiere looking like they couldn't bear to be sharing the same
space as each other. During an appearance on the podcast Chicks in the Office, Kutcher offered an
explanation for all the awkwardness when he said: "Here's the thing: if I put my arm around her, and was like all friendly with her,
I'd be having an affair with her." Back in 2021, Ashton Kutcher signed on
to voice a character in the animated web series Stoner Cats. But
this was no ordinary cartoon, as it was financed by the sale of
more than 10,000 non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. So it wasn't too surprising when the
Securities and Exchange Commission got involved. The show's plot revolves around a
group of cats who care for their owner who suffers from Alzheimer's and
smokes weed. It was assessed a fine of $1 million by the SEC for conducting
an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities. The Associate Director of
the SEC's Home Office said in a statement, "Stoner Cats wanted all the benefits
of offering and selling a security to the public but ignored the legal
responsibilities that come with doing so." Ashton Kutcher's poor judgment of character
was further exposed in 2023 when he agreed to appear in a trailer for comedian Matt
Rife's world tour, entitled Problematic. Just a few months after that, Rife would come
under fire for joking about domestic abuse. In the promo clip, Kutcher emerges
as a genie from a bottle to grant Rife three wishes. His first is to go back
in time and star in Dude, Where's My Car. "I'd be playing Ashton's role,
but I'll make- make it funny." Unsurprisingly, that request isn't
fulfilled. And neither is Rife's second wish, a date with Mila Kunis. But Kutcher
does grant him his third and final wish, which is for a tour that
exceeds his wildest dreams. "And I want it full sold out, with people from
across the world who just want to come out, have a good time and laugh. Can you give me that?" One could argue that Problematic
actually did live up to Rife's wishes, just not in the way he probably hoped for. Demi Moore didn't hold back when discussing
her marriage to Ashton Kutcher in her 2019 memoir Inside Out. She was the happiest she'd
ever been when they first got together in 2003, but things soon turned sour. She made several
damaging claims concerning everything from their sex life to her efforts towards sobriety.
For example, she recalled Kutcher saying, "I don't know if alcoholism is a real
thing – I think it's all about moderation." Moore recalled responding
to that comment by noting, "I wanted to be that girl. The girl who
could have a glass of wine at dinner, or do a tequila shot at a party. In
my mind, Ashton wanted that, too." Moore also claimed that Kutcher offered her little support while she tried to kick
her Vicodin habit. As she put it, "I felt like he was angry with me for
having this problem in the first place: you made your bed; now you have to lie in it." She also touched upon the tabloid reports
that Kutcher had been unfaithful by writing, "Because we had brought a third party
into our relationship, Ashton said, that blurred the lines and, to some
extent, justified what he'd done." Ashton Kutcher's past came back to haunt
him in 2019 when he was forced to testify in a high-profile murder trial. Back in February
2001, he was supposed to go out for drinks with 22-year-old fashion student Ashley Ellerin on
the same night that she was murdered by serial killer Michael Gargiulo. Kutcher was called
to testify at the trial about what happened that evening. The actor revealed that he
arrived at Ellerin's home to pick her up and spotted something through the window that he
at the time thought was innocuous. He testified, "I saw what I thought was red wine spilled on the
carpet, but that wasn't alarming because I went to her house party [days before] and it was like
a college party. I didn't think much about it." When Kutcher didn't hear anything from Ellerin, he
assumed that she'd simply stood him up. Instead, she'd been fatally stabbed in her bathroom,
and her lifeless body had been in the hallway, just out of sight. After learning of the
tragedy, Kutcher admitted that he voluntarily spoke to the police over concerns that he
might become a suspect. As he testified, "I remember the next day, after I heard about
what happened, I went to the detectives and said, 'My fingerprints are on the
door.' I was freaking out." Much of the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes
centered around the ever-increasing use of artificial intelligence. So considering what
else Ashton Kutcher has been up to lately, it's not hard to understand why he might
be increasingly less popular in certain circles. That's because in 2023, he launched
the Sound Ventures AI Fund, an investment fund worth $240 million. He created the project
along with music impresario Guy Oseary. "We have a massive platform shift taking place." Kutcher has been quite enthusiastic when
talking about artificial intelligence. As he explained during an interview with Variety, "We believe this is potentially the most
significant technology we will experience since the advent of the internet. The foundation
model layer companies are defining the category, and, in our view, they have the power to transform businesses and everyday life. That
is a conversation we want to be in."
