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."