Despite being sentenced to 30 years in prison, the furor surrounding disgraced actor Danny Masterson hasn’t subsided in the slightest, with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis finding themselves placed directly in the firing line.
It was revealed during the court proceedings that the married couple and former co-stars with Masterson on That ’70s Show had penned letters endorsing the accused as a “role model,” which obviously flies in the face of the crimes he was ultimately charged and convicted for committing.
Needless to say, the backlash against the pair has been vast, and it appears as though Kutcher and Kunis have only gone and dug themselves into an even deeper hole after addressing the controversy head-on and uploading an apology video to their social media channels.
Kutcher intimating that their character references were intended to remain private has left a bad taste behind in many mouths, with countless users piping up that the duo’s decision to go public and explain themselves is being widely interpreted as a “sorry we got caught” moment instead.
“We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson. They were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or re-traumatize them in any way. We would never want to do that, and we’re sorry if that has taken place.”
Kunis added that “We support victims. We have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future,” but even making a point of noting that they responded to a quest from Masterson’s family to “represent the person that we knew for 25 years” hasn’t gone down well, with plenty refusing to buy into what’s being perceived in certain quarters as a transparent attempt to get in front of the backlash.
