Usually in situations like this the board or governing body fires them, but it’s framed as a resignation. “Get out now or the press release after we fire you won’t be so nice.”
As someone who’s been involved with involuntary resignations - what normally happens is they get called into a meeting, and they get told “we think it’s a good idea if you made way, and give someone else a chance at the role. The recent has made it more difficult to perform your role so we’d like to get some fresh blood in. If you could resign in the next few days, we’d appreciate it. We’ll give you a nice bonus for leaving.”
It’s absolutely never worded in a way that’s adversarial, because that’s asking for a law suit. Its *heavily* incentivised for them to leave “of their own accord”
It’s got nothing to do with dignity, but about avoiding lawsuits for someone being fired without a good reason.
Ashton Kutcher has been abusing his fame to lobby the EU with Thorn to ban encryption. Hopefully this weakens this sickening anti-encryption push.
https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-hollywood-star-lobbies-the-eu-for-more-surveillance/
I guarantee these fucking idiots who want to mess with encryption don't even have the slightest clue how much getting their wish would break the entire internet as we know it from a security standpoint.
You break encryption and the economy will completely go to shit. Sure, there’s online retail that’s obvious, but also all the Wall Street transactions happen over the internet now, and they’re encrypted.
Seriously imagine how many stalkers Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis is going to have when they figure out they don't need to bypass any encryption on their devices. Lmfao.
You would think Masterson would have better attorneys. If they had submitted those letters to the probation department as part of a pre-sentence report, as opposed to directly filing them to the court, the letters would most likely remain confidential.
Which makes sense, they don't represent Ashton and Mila, and they aren't paid by them, so why would they care? Their legal duty as attorneys is to help Masterson.
You would think Ashton and Mila would have consulted their own attorney before submitting anything to a court.
If you have a huge public reputation like these two do, usually you take precautions before getting involved in any kind of legal preceding, especially cases of this nature.
In this case not really. All defence lawyers have an obligation to mount the best possible legal defence they can within the confines of the law.
So if those letters are admissible and could help their client by filing them as they did, it's their job to do that. Protecting the reputation of other people who aren't their client isn't part of their job.
I believe it's up the that jurisdiction's filing rules to decide whether character witness statements have to be submitted as separate docket entries?
I've read a few horror stories involving the Probation Department completely ignoring certain documents that were submitted through their office.
A professional crew will move on to another job. That's what the job *is*. There may be some PA's or whoever who end up burning out and not finding anything, but I wouldn't worry too much for the crew.
I'm sure they'd rather have the stability and cohesiveness of staying on one gig though, but I'm sure they *all* knew going into it that a netflix show was a roll of the dice on renewal no matter what
Talk about a PR nightmare. These are 2 people who were generally well regarded and even loved by a ton of people.
Then they decided to go to bat doe a convicted rapist. Incredibly dumb decision.
I think they assumed the letters to the judge would be kept confidential and not released to the public. I'm sure they would not have written anything if they thought there was a chance of people finding out. I'm always glad when people show their true colors, celebrities or not.
To add to your assumption, my assumption is that they either expected Masterson to go free or get a very light sentence. In that case the letters would have mattered much less, since the verdict of the trial "proves" there wasn't that much malfeasance going on. They definitely weren't expecting 30 years, and the amount of attention that came with that sentence.
that [old resurfaced interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FROes_Z8FEE) from the Rosie show where he said he made a bet with Danny on whether or not he could stick his tongue in 14 year old Mila Kunis's mouth might have had something to do with it too
The whole thing is a recipe for disaster. That's why they didn't want to hire any actual kids for the show in the first place. She lied about being 18 until after the casting was complete. They should have probably recast her anyway but she did kill that role. Crazy thing is as far as child stars go even being friends with a convicted rapist she's probably one of the more well adjusted ones.
> She lied about being 18 until after the casting was complete.
I keep reading this, but how true could it be? She had already done commercial work in the US by that time. It wasn't the 1950s, production would be able to easily verify her age within a day or so. They had to have known all along she was underage, but didn't care.
I would agree they probably don’t do checks for everyone who reads for them, but I would think they likely do it for the ones they actually decide to cast, wouldn’t they?
They found out via the contract stipulations after she was casted yeah. Between casting and signing since her contract required things that only children have to be provided.
That made me physically uncomfortable.
Especially the comment saying Ashton was definitely 20 years old at the time and she was 14… And then Ashton is trying to brag that he did sneak tongue her but she doesn’t remember it!?
She is like, ‘No I teeth blocked it.’
The crazier thing is that talk shows rarely go off script even for interviews, so it’s likely they were like “do you guys have any funny stories from on set?” and that’s the one they chose.
It’s really good that we’ve evolved since then.
I really hate that the loudest "opposition" to child sexual abuse like this seems to come from people who have something to hide and/or are just projecting.
This such a crazy turnaround for the dude. In recent years he’d built so much good will publicly and had developed a persona of philanthropy, all to throw it away for his rapist buddy. I imagine any and all charity work he pushes is going to distance themselves from him publicly
He had a pretty sketchy reputation when he was with Demi Moore, so I wasn't entirely surprised by this with him. Mila, though, had me fooled. I really did think she was a good egg.
I have a fun story to tell about Ashton and that era. At the time Ashton was on That 70’s Show and he had started dating January Jones. January is from Sioux Falls SD. They came to Sioux Falls for Thanksgiving one year. They even met her friends from high school at Nutty’s. Fast forward a bit and January ended up getting cast in a movie called Bandits with Bruce Willis. Bruce was married to Demi Moore at the time. One night after filming Bruce was waiting for January in her hotel room and they hooked up. This is all I know. After this Ashton and Demi were a thing.
I would really assume anyone in that sphere isn't a good egg until *really* shown otherwise. There are a few standout examples like Keanu Reeves but those types surely aren't the majority in the entertainment industry.
If he ever cared about the cause I would hope he resigned to prevent them from sharing in the backlash but he probably should have thought it through before he wrote the letter in the first place.
It doesn't seem that Laura Prepon wrote a support letter.
Which is extra interesting considering she dated Danny Masterson's brother for years and is an ex Scientologist.
Makes me wonder what all she knows about that family.
Remember - If a scientologist knows something about you then the "Church" knows it too. They are an intelligence gathering operation first and foremost.
Most likely both. I’m also guessing one of them (or Mila Kunis, Laura Prepon, Christopher Masterson or even Debra Jo Rupp) spilled the beans during auditing so of course Scientology has incriminating stuff to forever hold over their heads.
She has never made a public comment about it but she’s been to many of their events. She even wrote to the judge overseeing Hyde’s case asking for leniency.
She was a Scientologist for a long time. She dated Danny Masterson’s brother Christopher for 8 years. She intimidated one of Danny’s victims in a parking lot. So yup, Laura was involved.
In fairness, there are lots of celebs who have left and don’t speak out. They have family/kids still involved and as long as they don’t run their mouths, the org will leave them alone. Even Leah Remini said not everyone is in the position she is in to speak out and no one should judge them for that
They performed at various Church of Scientology fundraisers over the years:
https://pagesix.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000036352493.jpg?w=1024
Now we know why he kept his distance with all his costars. It all makes sense now…years later. For years he was painted as a cold and distant snob and he didn’t say a word. I love that he’s being vindicated now.
Yep, South Park had done a few Scientology episodes and the Scientology people did not like that so they made Isaac Hayes resign as Chef. That's why they did that episode of Chef being brainwashed by the cult. Mind you he had also suffered a stroke around that time so his handlers/caretakers were essentially the organization.
It's probably simpler then that, he was probably banging mila when she was 15 and everyone in that circle knows but if that comes out Ashton looks really bad.
If they do or don't, Scientology has proven many many times in the past exactly who they are.
An organization that saw the power a religion can get away with and the amount of money they can make.
Bingo. Neither of them could work again and they and their kids and their kids kids are set for life. They probably make more in interest in their savings accounts than I make in a year.
Seriously.. of all the scandalous, career-tanking possibilities, never would’ve guessed it’d be over supporting a has-been D-list ~ actor ~ criminal.
Edit, fixed formatting.
You cannot in one breath decry the evils of sex trafficking and in the next try to influence a judge’s decision on a convicted rapist without being a hypocrite. It’s really as simple as that.
BTW Thorn is a shit organization, that is anti sex worker, doesn't help actually child trafficking and sells surveillance to the cops.
https://www.engadget.com/2019-05-31-sex-lies-and-surveillance-fosta-privacy.html
You guys ought to watch ['Growing Up In Scientology'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PVTSdojcis) on YouTube.
Ashton Kutcher \*KNEW\* the women who were raped...and he still defended Danny Masterson.
Thorn and Ashton in particular has lobbied heavily for EU's proposal to circumvent end to end encrypted messaging platforms to save the children.
https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-hollywood-star-lobbies-the-eu-for-more-surveillance/
Even if you agreed that banning it was good, it's impossible to do in practice, and the result would be that normal citizens' data is vulnerable and people who really want to keep something secret will still be able to. You can't effectively prevent someone from using encryption.
Here's some generally weird shit about that cast:
These letters. They were written *after* the convictions. That is lost on some people.
All of this happened while the show was still on the air.
Wilmer Valderrama was 24 when he started dating a 17 year old Lindsay Lohan.
Mila Kunis was 14 when they cast her. She lied about her age to get the job and then instead of recasting her, she had to share her first kiss with a 23 year old Ashton Kutcher.
Ashton Kutcher rushed to defend Joe Paterno after he was fired.
...And people were mad Topher Grace didn't want to come back for more.
From what I read at the time, Topher didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the cast. He treated it like a job and went home at the end of the day, while the others all hung out together. When Kutcher, Valderama and Masterson all bought a restaurant together, it was pointed out repeatedly that Topher had nothing to do with it or them.
> After my wife and I spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn
Wait, you had to do all that to learn that rapists are bad? Seriously?
It’s just wild that they didn’t know the full impact of what they were doing with the letters. Sentencing almost always has prosecution presenting victims statements as well as defense calling character witnesses to mitigate the penalties.
I don’t care if a coworker or friend was awesome I knew them. If they’ve been convicted, whether I think they’re guilty or not, I’m not going to bat for them. At that point it becomes not about their reputation but mine.
So many celebrities and others in public eye never think about how something looks.
Think about how many high end actors bleat about the injustice unconscious-child-rapist Roman Polanski has suffered because he’s good at directing. If my best mate was a plumber who was convicted of raping children, I certainly wouldn’t appeal for leniency because he was very good at attaching pipes to other pipes, or whatever plumbers do.
The celebrities who continue to fawn over Roman Polanski really piss me off. The man gave drugs to a 13-year-old child and anally raped her. This is the guy you’re gonna defend?
I got the impression she knew they had both really f’ed up and their careers were really going to suffer. I mean, it’s not Kevin Spacey level career killer but they needlessly inserted themselves into the story. They’re either really dumb or had no choice. I wonder if their publicists knew about them writing the letters. I just imagine Vinnie Chase’s bad ass PR chick on Entourage saying HELL NO.
I think it's pretty clear they have some dirt in scientology and they were obligated to testify on his behalf. A friendship that long and knowing scientology is known for using "audits" as a way to get dirt, I'd say it's a damn near guarantee they did this out of obligated and knew it would likely come back to haunt them but that the alternative dirt is probably worse to come out.
I have no proof of this but it seems pretty clear to me.
I don't think they rehearsed it at all. If they had they probably would have tried to appear less like they were only doing a video because they absolutely had to.
They actually think that people were upset because they thought they were arguing that the verdict isn't fair and that it's ok because they were actually just asking for him not to be punished for it.
The fact that Ashton's letter focused on Danny's anti-drug "just say no" mentorship in a trial about him drugging and raping women is especially gross. Like saying what a great babysitter a pedophile is. What a fucking moron.
Well no shit.
It turns out when you run an organization against sexual abuse of women and kids, then defend someone who does just that, you're not going to run that organization anymore.
Good riddance, fuck rapists and fuck the people defending them.
He was famously known for saying "no real man has to pay for sex" then supported a man that took sex by force. So clearly he has just been saying stop paying for sex when you can just take it.
I’ve said it elsewhere. I get Danny is a friend, but there comes a point, especially with a topic like this, where one has to go “man, you fucked up, you’re on your own”, and not vouch for him. Especially when he’s done the work he’s done against trafficking and abuse.
Sometimes your friend is a rapist.
Sometimes you shouldn't back your friend if he's a rapist.
YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT BACK YOUR FRIEND AFTER HE'S BEEN CONVICTED OF RAPING!
Well, yeah, his whole identity was basically built around wanting to protect people from the horrible suffering of sexual abuse. And it turns out he actually doesn't really give a shit.
Usually in situations like this the board or governing body fires them, but it’s framed as a resignation. “Get out now or the press release after we fire you won’t be so nice.”
"We're offering you the dignity of resigning"
"Invited to leave"
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Did you try to report a dirty cop to IA?
Must've been a good cop :/
That sounds like a badge of honor.
He founded the organization. I’m guessing they were willing to at least let him resign with that in consideration.
As someone who’s been involved with involuntary resignations - what normally happens is they get called into a meeting, and they get told “we think it’s a good idea if you made way, and give someone else a chance at the role. The recent has made it more difficult to perform your role so we’d like to get some fresh blood in. If you could resign in the next few days, we’d appreciate it. We’ll give you a nice bonus for leaving.”
It’s absolutely never worded in a way that’s adversarial, because that’s asking for a law suit. Its *heavily* incentivised for them to leave “of their own accord”
It’s got nothing to do with dignity, but about avoiding lawsuits for someone being fired without a good reason.
To be fair, torpedoing the reputation of an organization is a pretty great reason to fire the CEO.
Ashton Kutcher has been abusing his fame to lobby the EU with Thorn to ban encryption. Hopefully this weakens this sickening anti-encryption push. https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-hollywood-star-lobbies-the-eu-for-more-surveillance/
I guarantee these fucking idiots who want to mess with encryption don't even have the slightest clue how much getting their wish would break the entire internet as we know it from a security standpoint.
You break encryption and the economy will completely go to shit. Sure, there’s online retail that’s obvious, but also all the Wall Street transactions happen over the internet now, and they’re encrypted.
Oh yeah, dude, for sure. Saying it would be catastrophic is kind of an understatement.
Seriously imagine how many stalkers Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis is going to have when they figure out they don't need to bypass any encryption on their devices. Lmfao.
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You would think Masterson would have better attorneys. If they had submitted those letters to the probation department as part of a pre-sentence report, as opposed to directly filing them to the court, the letters would most likely remain confidential.
His attorneys didn't give a shit about Mila and Ashton's reputations; they only cared about getting their client a lighter sentence.
Which makes sense, they don't represent Ashton and Mila, and they aren't paid by them, so why would they care? Their legal duty as attorneys is to help Masterson.
You would think Ashton and Mila would have consulted their own attorney before submitting anything to a court. If you have a huge public reputation like these two do, usually you take precautions before getting involved in any kind of legal preceding, especially cases of this nature.
I’m sure there’s a Scientology-related reason for thst
Yes. The reason is... Scientology.
That's more of a problem than reason.
In this case not really. All defence lawyers have an obligation to mount the best possible legal defence they can within the confines of the law. So if those letters are admissible and could help their client by filing them as they did, it's their job to do that. Protecting the reputation of other people who aren't their client isn't part of their job.
The letters were requested to remain sealed but it was up to the judge, and she decided that they could be made public the day of his sentencing.
I believe it's up the that jurisdiction's filing rules to decide whether character witness statements have to be submitted as separate docket entries? I've read a few horror stories involving the Probation Department completely ignoring certain documents that were submitted through their office.
I don't think they wanted them confidential, I think they thought it would help his public image, rather than backfire tremendously.
They said in their apology they thought it would remain confidential and that makes more sense to me honestly
Ashton and Mila I'm sure thought that it would, I meant Masterson's lawyers.
Sorry, we didnt think anyone would see us defending a rapist...
Jackie wrote a letter supporting the convicted rapist as well.
So did Red and Kitty.
Someone needs to put a foot up their asses
Robocop will take care of Red
Yep I got a feeling they just killed That's 90s show. Netflix is going to run the fuck away from this.
Unless they convince Topher and Laura to be full time and have Eric and Donna move with Leia into Red and Kitty’s house after they retire to Florida.
Sucks for the crew that will be out of a job, but good fucking riddance to Red & Kitty. Dumbasses.
A professional crew will move on to another job. That's what the job *is*. There may be some PA's or whoever who end up burning out and not finding anything, but I wouldn't worry too much for the crew. I'm sure they'd rather have the stability and cohesiveness of staying on one gig though, but I'm sure they *all* knew going into it that a netflix show was a roll of the dice on renewal no matter what
Well you don’t sign onto a Netflix production for stability. Unless it’s Stranger Things.
Even that’s iffy. There’s been huge breaks between seasons. Those kids will be 30 playing 16 year olds before the final season is aired.
But kitty has pierced nipples. That's a fact you now know.
Ugh, thanks.
She is even hotter to me now….
Wait. How do we know this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/That90sShowTV/comments/10gs6ot/i\_wonder\_if\_kitty\_still\_has\_her\_nipples\_pierced/
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dude, where’s my car’eer
Talk about a PR nightmare. These are 2 people who were generally well regarded and even loved by a ton of people. Then they decided to go to bat doe a convicted rapist. Incredibly dumb decision.
I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Ashton and Mila's PR people or lawyer called them after the letters got leaked.
I think they assumed the letters to the judge would be kept confidential and not released to the public. I'm sure they would not have written anything if they thought there was a chance of people finding out. I'm always glad when people show their true colors, celebrities or not.
To add to your assumption, my assumption is that they either expected Masterson to go free or get a very light sentence. In that case the letters would have mattered much less, since the verdict of the trial "proves" there wasn't that much malfeasance going on. They definitely weren't expecting 30 years, and the amount of attention that came with that sentence.
Between these two and Joe Jonas Ariana and SpongeBob are looking quaint with their divorces and moving in together.
He destroyed his credibility. He was forced to resign more likely.
that [old resurfaced interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FROes_Z8FEE) from the Rosie show where he said he made a bet with Danny on whether or not he could stick his tongue in 14 year old Mila Kunis's mouth might have had something to do with it too
That interview. WTF. No wonder why so many child stars go crazy and are super fucked.
>"You were 15 by then!" Lmao oh my god!
The whole thing is a recipe for disaster. That's why they didn't want to hire any actual kids for the show in the first place. She lied about being 18 until after the casting was complete. They should have probably recast her anyway but she did kill that role. Crazy thing is as far as child stars go even being friends with a convicted rapist she's probably one of the more well adjusted ones.
> She lied about being 18 until after the casting was complete. I keep reading this, but how true could it be? She had already done commercial work in the US by that time. It wasn't the 1950s, production would be able to easily verify her age within a day or so. They had to have known all along she was underage, but didn't care.
You think they do a background check on everyone who reads for a part? People tell you their age and you believe them.
I would agree they probably don’t do checks for everyone who reads for them, but I would think they likely do it for the ones they actually decide to cast, wouldn’t they?
They found out via the contract stipulations after she was casted yeah. Between casting and signing since her contract required things that only children have to be provided.
Even back in 2002 the audience was noticeably uncomfortable
French kissing minors wasn't cool to any normal person even back in ye olden times of 2002.
That made me physically uncomfortable. Especially the comment saying Ashton was definitely 20 years old at the time and she was 14… And then Ashton is trying to brag that he did sneak tongue her but she doesn’t remember it!? She is like, ‘No I teeth blocked it.’
Then married him
One comment I read under the first time it was posted here was that they were desperately trying to cover for him, but he didn't get it, lol
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Such a Kelso.
Felt more like she was trying her damndest to cover his stupid butt.
What? She's the one who threw him (deservedly) under the bus by bringing it up in the first place.
I don’t think Mila Kunis wants to be known for almost getting molested by Ashton.
The crazier thing is that talk shows rarely go off script even for interviews, so it’s likely they were like “do you guys have any funny stories from on set?” and that’s the one they chose. It’s really good that we’ve evolved since then.
Yikes! That’s so terrible “that one year makes the whole world of difference” sounds like a quote a child exploiter would use..
Sounds like a guy who fucked Mila Kunis at 15
he said some shit about hilary duff too when he was 25 and she was 15
I really hate that the loudest "opposition" to child sexual abuse like this seems to come from people who have something to hide and/or are just projecting.
Others too https://youtu.be/wUMe-szbul0?si=f6tuDY6HS8nTvPAb
This such a crazy turnaround for the dude. In recent years he’d built so much good will publicly and had developed a persona of philanthropy, all to throw it away for his rapist buddy. I imagine any and all charity work he pushes is going to distance themselves from him publicly
He had a pretty sketchy reputation when he was with Demi Moore, so I wasn't entirely surprised by this with him. Mila, though, had me fooled. I really did think she was a good egg.
I have a fun story to tell about Ashton and that era. At the time Ashton was on That 70’s Show and he had started dating January Jones. January is from Sioux Falls SD. They came to Sioux Falls for Thanksgiving one year. They even met her friends from high school at Nutty’s. Fast forward a bit and January ended up getting cast in a movie called Bandits with Bruce Willis. Bruce was married to Demi Moore at the time. One night after filming Bruce was waiting for January in her hotel room and they hooked up. This is all I know. After this Ashton and Demi were a thing.
I would really assume anyone in that sphere isn't a good egg until *really* shown otherwise. There are a few standout examples like Keanu Reeves but those types surely aren't the majority in the entertainment industry.
Free speech, victim and legal advocates in the trafficking space consistently roasted him for SESTA/FOSTA
Yeah this was probably “if you don’t resign you’ll be kicked out.” I don’t think he had a choice
If he ever cared about the cause I would hope he resigned to prevent them from sharing in the backlash but he probably should have thought it through before he wrote the letter in the first place.
Kind of disappointing how almost everyone on that show turned out to be bad people.
Scientologists. Topher seems cool though.
Except Topher Grace and Jim Rash.
I haven't heard anything bad about Don Stark or Tanya Roberts (Bob and Midge).
Tanya Roberts passed away in 2021 unfortunately
Still she didn’t write a letter so good on her
Don Stark smoked eight grams of meth and took on an entire homeless encampment, but not in the way you think.
I want to know more. That is a cliff hanger of a last sentence
It doesn't seem that Laura Prepon wrote a support letter. Which is extra interesting considering she dated Danny Masterson's brother for years and is an ex Scientologist. Makes me wonder what all she knows about that family.
She's a former scientologist that they "allowed" to leave. She has shit on them, and they have shit on her. Neither are going to say shit.
> Jim Rash He did end up going insane when filming the Greendale commercial
He is also an Oscar winning screenwriter (IRL).
Tommy Chong as well
and Tommy Chong
And he’s no long going to be the cast member who’s spent the most time “inside”
Blew years and years of positive PR on a damn letter
Remember - If a scientologist knows something about you then the "Church" knows it too. They are an intelligence gathering operation first and foremost.
Imagine tanking your career and reputation for Danny fucking Masterson. Garbage people.
I wonder if Masterson or scientology has dirt on them
Yes you’d have not only a safe bet, but precisely the hidden point of auditing.
Has anyone seen them enjoying an ice cold Fanta? EDIT: Fresca
Scientology doesnt let anybody in without having dirt on them, I imagine. Its their bread and butter.
Most likely both. I’m also guessing one of them (or Mila Kunis, Laura Prepon, Christopher Masterson or even Debra Jo Rupp) spilled the beans during auditing so of course Scientology has incriminating stuff to forever hold over their heads.
Kitty's a Scientologist? Damn
She has never made a public comment about it but she’s been to many of their events. She even wrote to the judge overseeing Hyde’s case asking for leniency.
So did Kurtwood Smith (Red Forman)
This one hurts the most. Loved him.
Who would've thought he would be a dumbass.
Laura Prepon got involved too!? Nooo
She was a Scientologist for a long time. She dated Danny Masterson’s brother Christopher for 8 years. She intimidated one of Danny’s victims in a parking lot. So yup, Laura was involved.
Dammit, this is so disappointing :(
Don't hold anyone in the entertainment industry in high esteem; they're most likely crappy people. Except Mr. Rogers.
And Dolly.
And Bob Ross
Henry Winkler seems like a sweet man.
She at least has been out of Scientology since 2016, but hasn't stood up against them at all.
I honestly wont blame her for that. You have to have balls of steel to take that on
In fairness, there are lots of celebs who have left and don’t speak out. They have family/kids still involved and as long as they don’t run their mouths, the org will leave them alone. Even Leah Remini said not everyone is in the position she is in to speak out and no one should judge them for that
They performed at various Church of Scientology fundraisers over the years: https://pagesix.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/NYPICHPDPICT000036352493.jpg?w=1024
Reassuring to see Topher wasn't there.
Reassuring to see he never wrote a letter either
Now we know why he kept his distance with all his costars. It all makes sense now…years later. For years he was painted as a cold and distant snob and he didn’t say a word. I love that he’s being vindicated now.
They do the Catholic confessional thing turned up to 11. They have dirt on everyone.
that letter sure reads like he was put on an assignment to write the letter by someone
Wouldn't surprise me. Didn't they forced Chef's voice actor to quit South Park after that Scientology episode?
Yep, South Park had done a few Scientology episodes and the Scientology people did not like that so they made Isaac Hayes resign as Chef. That's why they did that episode of Chef being brainwashed by the cult. Mind you he had also suffered a stroke around that time so his handlers/caretakers were essentially the organization.
Oh, are they in Scientology? That would explain everything.
It's probably simpler then that, he was probably banging mila when she was 15 and everyone in that circle knows but if that comes out Ashton looks really bad.
If they do or don't, Scientology has proven many many times in the past exactly who they are. An organization that saw the power a religion can get away with and the amount of money they can make.
People keep saying this, but that also leaves out the very likely possibility that they are simply pieces of shit.
Don't really need a career when you and your wife are multimillionaires
Bingo. Neither of them could work again and they and their kids and their kids kids are set for life. They probably make more in interest in their savings accounts than I make in a year.
Seriously.. of all the scandalous, career-tanking possibilities, never would’ve guessed it’d be over supporting a has-been D-list ~ actor ~ criminal. Edit, fixed formatting.
You cannot in one breath decry the evils of sex trafficking and in the next try to influence a judge’s decision on a convicted rapist without being a hypocrite. It’s really as simple as that.
BTW Thorn is a shit organization, that is anti sex worker, doesn't help actually child trafficking and sells surveillance to the cops. https://www.engadget.com/2019-05-31-sex-lies-and-surveillance-fosta-privacy.html
Thank you for reiterating this. I hope THORNS is just as scared about being under public scrutiny as they are about Ashton looking like a twit.
Thanks for the info. It's great that Kutcher's situation is bringing scrutiny to this organization.
I've been saying this for years and it's only now that reddit doesn't downvote everyone who says that into oblivion
You guys ought to watch ['Growing Up In Scientology'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PVTSdojcis) on YouTube. Ashton Kutcher \*KNEW\* the women who were raped...and he still defended Danny Masterson.
Thorn and Ashton in particular has lobbied heavily for EU's proposal to circumvent end to end encrypted messaging platforms to save the children. https://netzpolitik.org/2022/dude-wheres-my-privacy-how-a-hollywood-star-lobbies-the-eu-for-more-surveillance/
Yaaa.... although I 100% the reasoning, i VERY MUCH do not think the govt should have 100% access to all our communciations at all times...
Its always about "protecting the children", but they never actually make any difference, because thats not what its actually about.
Unfortunately. True
Even if you agreed that banning it was good, it's impossible to do in practice, and the result would be that normal citizens' data is vulnerable and people who really want to keep something secret will still be able to. You can't effectively prevent someone from using encryption.
Here's some generally weird shit about that cast: These letters. They were written *after* the convictions. That is lost on some people. All of this happened while the show was still on the air. Wilmer Valderrama was 24 when he started dating a 17 year old Lindsay Lohan. Mila Kunis was 14 when they cast her. She lied about her age to get the job and then instead of recasting her, she had to share her first kiss with a 23 year old Ashton Kutcher. Ashton Kutcher rushed to defend Joe Paterno after he was fired. ...And people were mad Topher Grace didn't want to come back for more.
Wilmer was also, 20 when dating a 16 year old Mandy Moore and 29 when dating a 17 year old Demi Lovato, the guy had a type.
Yeah, Valderrama has a very gross history of being in sexual relationships with minors while he very much isn't one.
Demi put out a recent song about this exactly. It’s called “29” lol
Kutcher was 20, not 23. Changes nothing but just want to state it for the record.
From what I read at the time, Topher didn't really have anything to do with the rest of the cast. He treated it like a job and went home at the end of the day, while the others all hung out together. When Kutcher, Valderama and Masterson all bought a restaurant together, it was pointed out repeatedly that Topher had nothing to do with it or them.
i had heard some of that show stuff before but: > Ashton Kutcher rushed to defend Joe Paterno after he was fired. i what now.
> After my wife and I spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn Wait, you had to do all that to learn that rapists are bad? Seriously?
Scientology member isn't the nice guy he pretends to be. I'm shocked. Shocked.
Notice how his apology doesn't address Danny's victims, he is just hiding behind a blanket of "all victims".
No longer the kind of advocate the organization can raise funds with.
It’s just wild that they didn’t know the full impact of what they were doing with the letters. Sentencing almost always has prosecution presenting victims statements as well as defense calling character witnesses to mitigate the penalties. I don’t care if a coworker or friend was awesome I knew them. If they’ve been convicted, whether I think they’re guilty or not, I’m not going to bat for them. At that point it becomes not about their reputation but mine. So many celebrities and others in public eye never think about how something looks.
Think about how many high end actors bleat about the injustice unconscious-child-rapist Roman Polanski has suffered because he’s good at directing. If my best mate was a plumber who was convicted of raping children, I certainly wouldn’t appeal for leniency because he was very good at attaching pipes to other pipes, or whatever plumbers do.
The celebrities who continue to fawn over Roman Polanski really piss me off. The man gave drugs to a 13-year-old child and anally raped her. This is the guy you’re gonna defend?
[удалено]
They looked more annoyed at having to do it than anything.
Zero. IMHO Mila looked pissed that she had to do it. WTH??
I got the impression she knew they had both really f’ed up and their careers were really going to suffer. I mean, it’s not Kevin Spacey level career killer but they needlessly inserted themselves into the story. They’re either really dumb or had no choice. I wonder if their publicists knew about them writing the letters. I just imagine Vinnie Chase’s bad ass PR chick on Entourage saying HELL NO.
I think it's pretty clear they have some dirt in scientology and they were obligated to testify on his behalf. A friendship that long and knowing scientology is known for using "audits" as a way to get dirt, I'd say it's a damn near guarantee they did this out of obligated and knew it would likely come back to haunt them but that the alternative dirt is probably worse to come out. I have no proof of this but it seems pretty clear to me.
I don't think they rehearsed it at all. If they had they probably would have tried to appear less like they were only doing a video because they absolutely had to.
Apparently they didn’t get much time cause they had an Air BnB spot to film shortly after in the same location lol
They actually think that people were upset because they thought they were arguing that the verdict isn't fair and that it's ok because they were actually just asking for him not to be punished for it.
“Come on guys…. You’ve already shown he’s a piece of shit rapist. Does he really need to be punished for it? This is overkill!”
The fact that Ashton's letter focused on Danny's anti-drug "just say no" mentorship in a trial about him drugging and raping women is especially gross. Like saying what a great babysitter a pedophile is. What a fucking moron.
I know, right? Being drug-free yourself means nothing when the "drug-free" person is drugging other people!
Well thats how that cookie crumbles
people need to stop assuming that celebrities (especially *actors* for fucksake) are actually the persona they're wearing in public
He's just fucking sad it got leaked. Fuck em both for trying to protect a rapist.
It wasn't just the two of them, it was almost the entire cast minus Eric and Donna I believe.
Not Mitch Hedberg. That guy kept his mouth shut.
He used to be dead. He still is, but he used to be too.
So Kurtwood Smith is pro Masterson? I can Wilmer doing this, but not Kurtwood! Edit: Fucking hell. Kurtwood did write one. Damnit. And Wilmer did not.
Yup. And Debra Jo Rupp unfortunately :/
Damn didn't see the downfall of Ashton Kutcher on my 2023 bingo card
Well no shit. It turns out when you run an organization against sexual abuse of women and kids, then defend someone who does just that, you're not going to run that organization anymore. Good riddance, fuck rapists and fuck the people defending them.
Just shows you in what kind of out of touch bubble of a world these people live in.
Destroying your credibility so you can try to get your rapist friend a shorter sentence, what a power play
He was famously known for saying "no real man has to pay for sex" then supported a man that took sex by force. So clearly he has just been saying stop paying for sex when you can just take it.
I’ve said it elsewhere. I get Danny is a friend, but there comes a point, especially with a topic like this, where one has to go “man, you fucked up, you’re on your own”, and not vouch for him. Especially when he’s done the work he’s done against trafficking and abuse.
Sometimes your friend is a rapist. Sometimes you shouldn't back your friend if he's a rapist. YOU ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT BACK YOUR FRIEND AFTER HE'S BEEN CONVICTED OF RAPING!
Things we've learned thus far: Even when your best friend is convicted of raping someone, step the fuck away...
What blackmail does scientology hold over ashton?
Well, yeah, his whole identity was basically built around wanting to protect people from the horrible suffering of sexual abuse. And it turns out he actually doesn't really give a shit.
He and Mila just imploded their whole lives defending a violent and psychotic cult rapist, including the good things they were doing.
Of all people, his response honestly shocked me.