It’s surely been a fraught weekend for Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ PR team. On Friday, it emerged that the Hollywood couple had submitted letters of support for their friend and former That 70s Show co-star Danny Masterson, before he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for the rapes of two women two decades ago. In those letters, the couple praised Masterson’s “exceptional character” and “tremendous positive influence”; Kutcher described him as a “role model”, while his wife hailed Masterson as “an amazing friend, confidant, and, above all, an outstanding older brother figure to me”.
Their comments inevitably landed with a thud. A few days later, Kutcher and Kunis donned their most remorseful plain T-shirts and assembled in front of a wooden wall to film an apology video. That deliberately boring setting was no doubt painstakingly workshopped by the aforementioned PR team, because nothing screams insincere like saying sorry in front of, say, a private tennis court or infinity pool. Unfortunately, it’s also the same backdrop that the couple used when they filmed a spoof of the notorious “Imagine” video (which was originally shared by Wonder Woman actor Gal Gadot during lockdown, featuring a bunch of her famous pals earnestly singing along to the John Lennon song) to feature in the TV show The Boys – they’ve gone from parodying embarrassing celebrity misfires to engaging in one.
