Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis resign from anti-child-trafficking group
Kutcher directly linked his departure from Thorn to his decision to write a character statement on behalf of That '70s Show co-star Danny Masterson
Aux News Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher has formally stepped down from the leadership board of Thorn, the anti-child-trafficking organization he co-founded with ex-wife Demi Moore back in 2009, Time reports. In his resignation letter to the organization, Kutcher directly linked his decision to leave the group to his recent choice to write a character letter calling for leniency for That ’70s Show co-star and long-time friend Danny Masterson, who has been convicted and now sentenced on two counts of rape. “Victims of sexual abuse have been historically silenced,” Kutcher wrote in his resignation letter, “And the character statement I submitted is yet another painful instance of questioning victims who are brave enough to share their experiences.”
Mila Kunis, Kutcher’s wife—who also wrote a glowing letter of support for Masterson, which his legal team (unsuccessfully) hoped would lead to lighter sentencing for the actor—has also stepped down from her position as an observer on Thorn’s board.
Thorn focuses largely on tech solutions to child sex trafficking, including creating tools that allow “tech companies to detect, review, and report child sexual abuse material at scale.” Moore and Kutcher founded it shortly after viewing a documentary about child sex trafficking in 2009; Kutcher has testified before Congress in connection to the group’s work.
Kutcher and Kunis have been heavily criticized for being two of 50 people who wrote letters of support for Masterson (including fellow That ’70s Show and That ’90s Show stars Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith). They issued an apology for harm caused by their letters over the weekend, stating that, “The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system. Or the validity of the jury’s ruling.” (The apology does not seem to have done much to quell ire, or stop people looking through they and their co-workers’ history for other troubling moments.)
In his resignation letter today, Kutcher wrote that,
After my wife and I spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn, I have determined the responsible thing for me to do is resign as Chairman of the Board, effectively immediately. I cannot allow my error in judgment to distract from our efforts and the children we serve.
Adding later that,
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.
You can read his full letter here.
36 Comments
Ugh hadn’t heard Debra Jo was in on it too….. Why Kitty?!
Kurtwood, too. Super disappointed. He’s one of my favorite actors.
Guess the real dumbass was in the mirror all along.
He needs a foot right in the ass.
Not that it’s great that they did it, but both Debra Jo and Kurtwood’s letters seemed to be in a predefined form (presumably provided by Masterson’s lawyers), and pretty luke-warm support (presumably out of some sort of sense of obligation from 20+ years of friendship). They both acknowledged the validity of the ruling, basically told a couple of stories about nice things that Masterson did, and notably did not ask for any leniency, unlike Ashton and Mila. I’m still pretty disappointed (Kurtwood is one of my favorites too), but it could be worse.
God forbid people feel “some sort of sense of obligation from 20+ years of friendship,” I guess.
Turns out that while that president wasn’t above the law, he certainly though someone else was.
Turns out Topher is the only good dude from that cast.
Anybody who spends that much time with Star Wars prequel footage has something wrong with them. Just wait for the other shoe to drop.
Leo erasure
You say that, but he prays for the death of honors student Peter Parker.
I feel very sorry for your friends and family if you don’t understand why.
Not going to waste any time defending them, but Lena Dunham didn’t get near as much crap for defending her friend.
It’s been a loooong time since people thought well of LD. So criticizing her latest hypocrisy seemed a little pointless. She was not on the board of an anti-abuse organization. She is not a Scientologist. And nevertheless, she DID get a fair amount of crap.
Oh cmon. She gets a shitload of scorn and hatred whenever she turns up or tries to write something. Surely we’ve done enough there. I still get queasy over one bad review 20 years ago. If I had her press, I’d cry myself to sleep at night.
Nah. She gets shit on by right-wingers but has inexplicably gotten a pass in left-wing circles.
1. I’m not sure how you’re measuring flak, but looking back at articles and reports about the story, Lena Dunham copped tons of flak.2. It was less of a story at the time because Lena Dunham’s reputation was already trash. To quote the Vox article’s opening line: ‘In news that should astonish no one, people are angry with Lena Dunham again.’3. Lena Dunham gets tons of flak even for things that are *not* objectionable, such as doing nude scenes while not being a supermodel.
What is your point here, besides the public humiliation?
Turns out this is all to prepare for his heel turn as he invests heavily in child trafficking.
“Watch Out, watch out, watch out!”
While Ashton K on his astonishing heel turn, RKO a sex trafficking victim outta nowhere.
*sigh*“And the character statement I submitted is yet another painful instance of questioning victims who are brave enough to share their experiences.”If he’d led with that on the ‘apology video’, this would have been over.
Oh, so it’s all about the order of things.
Well thank god the true villains of this story are receiving their comeuppance.
Danny Masterson was sentenced to 25 years to life. So yeah.
I used to quell my dislike for Kutcher when I knew he worked for such a good cause. “Well, at least he’s got that going for him, maybe a good dude.” Now…
Well done, outrage mob. Well done.
It’s funny how these morons act so important and self-aware.
Why? Not like they raped anybody. Not that there’s anything wrong with a lil hanky panky
“Kutcher has testified before Congress”
Is this the biggest example of The Stupid Leading The Blind” in human history?
Dude, Where’s My Kid?
Not in the bath, I’d imagine.
Just wait until there are congressional hearings revolving about, and with the testimony of, the Kardashians.
*shudder*
They are no longer anti child trafficking
Meg finally shuts up
Let’s not pretend that Thorn is good at what it does either. FOSTA and SESTA had the exact opposite effect if it was designed to stop sex trafficking.
But I suppose if you’re in the market to sell snake oil to cops, then they definitely worked.
quite a BUTTERFLY EFFECT (2004) this has all had