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STANDING with his arm around his wife, Ashton Kutcher looked sheepish as he hit the Golden Globes red carpet.

While Mila Kunis, 42, put on a brave face, the 47-year-old actor’s nerves couldn’t be missed, and it’s no surprise. It’s been four years since Hollywood’s former golden couple have attended an award show after being shunned by their peers for supporting rapist Danny Masterson and keeping quiet over close friend Diddy.  So why now? Here, insiders tell us exactly what is going on behind closed doors and the truth behind their bold decision. 

A pal close to the couple revealed: “The Golden Globes is a huge deal, but this is Ashton and Mila’s way of telling people they are back.

“They are aware they have made a number of mistakes and they feel embarrassed by it all. It’s been very hard for them going from being the most popular couple in town, to outcasts.”

Ashton – who is best loved for That ’70s Show, which is where he met Mila – is gearing up for his TV return after landing a place on new show The Beauty, alongside Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall. 

They are aware they have made a number of mistakes and they feel embarrassed by it all.

Acting work has been few and far between – his last role was the rom-com Your Place or Mine, which he shot in 2021.

The insider told us: “Ashton was over the moon when Ryan Murphy offered him the lifeline of a new show.

“He is determined to redeem himself and put an end to all the rumours. He feels like this is a step in the right direction. If this goes well he could be back where he wants to be in no time.”

His new show airs in the US in just two weeks time, so their appearance certainly seems deliberate. 

Things were looking very different for the star two years ago after he was forced to publicly apologise for supporting his co-star Danny Masterson, who has been jailed for 30 years to life.

Ashton and Mila both appeared in a video together, insisting they did not intend to undermine the victims’ testimony or retraumatise them, after they both wrote letters of support for him.

The couple appeared with Masterson in That ’70s Show around the time of the attacks in 2003.

Ashton had told the rape trial judge in Los Angeles that he was a man who treated people “with decency, equality, and generosity”, adding he was “an “exceptional older brother figure”.

Following the backlash he stepped down as chair of his anti-child sex abuse organization. 

It was on That ’70s Show where Ashton and Mila met for the first time in 1998 – she was 14 and he was 19. It wasn’t until 2012 that they reconnected following his divorce from Demi Moore and married in 2015, before having two children Wyatt, 10, and son Dimitri, eight.

I was a 14-year-old little girl, and I was extremely scared for my life.

Mila on first kiss with Ashton

On the sitcom though their characters Michael Kelso and Jackie Burkhart fell for each other, and Mila later admitted her first ever kiss had been an onscreen one with Ashton. 

In an interview in 2002 on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, she revealed: “I’ve never kissed a guy. I was a 14-year-old little girl, and I was extremely scared for my life. He was very nice about it, like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’”

Joking about the age difference, Ashton said: “They were like, ‘You guys are going to be making out in this scene.’ And I’m thinking wait, this is slightly illegal.”

The inappropriateness didn’t end there, though – their now jailed co-star Danny made a bet with him to ‘use tongues’.

Ashton revealed: “Danny bet me like 20 bucks I wouldn’t do it.”

There was some debate about if tongues were indeed used, but Mila insisted: “I didn’t let him, but I think he tried.”

Mila later admitted she had “the biggest crush” on her older co-star, although nothing was going to happen until years later. 

WORRYING FRIENDSHIPS

In 2003, Ashton raised eyebrows once again when presenting his MTV show Punk’d. He was 25 at the time and said 15-year-old Lizzie McGuire actress Hilary Duff is ‘one of the girls that we’re all waiting for to turn 18’. 

While at the time it wasn’t considered as offensive, in recent years his remark has been heavily criticised.

So too has his friendship with Diddy – who has been jailed for over four years for two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

The pair are said to have met on the set of Punk’d – spawning a 20-year friendship and invites to Diddy’s highly controversial parties. There is no suggestion he ever attended a ‘freak-off’.

Speaking of their friendship, he said previously:  “I’ve got a lot I can’t tell…Diddy party stories, man. That was like, some weird memory lane.”

Our insider explained: “A lot of Ashton’s past behaviour keeps rearing its head and it’s really not been helping his image. There has been a lot of speculation over the years.

“He’s really hoping enough time has passed for people to forgive him. They had friendships with people, yes, but they had no idea what they were involved in. They were hoodwinked as much as the rest of us.

“Ashton has taken a lot of time to reflect on things and work through it all with Mila.

“It’s definitely taken its toll on their marriage, but the fact she was by his side at the Golden Globes shows she fully supports and trusts him.”

Mila has been steadily working on one or two projects a year, but is said to also be hoping things pick up for her too.

Her two biggest box office hits, Ted and Oz the Great and Powerful, released in 2012 and 2013.

Their relationship certainly had controversial beginnings, and they’ve continued to hit headlines since starting a family. 

In 2021, they sparked debate by revealing they don’t bathe their kids daily, insisting they only wash them when they see they are visibly dirty.

And Ashton said of himself that he washed his “armpits and my crotch daily” and threw water on his face after a workout “to get all the salts out”.

The backlash is said to have felt out of proportion, and while the couple made fun of it, they are thought to have felt frustrated about public opinion of them. 

Things got so bad that in 2024, the pair were believed to be considering moving abroad to Europe or even just away from Hollywood.

But they are thought to have stayed because of business opportunities. Off screen Ashton has become a highly successful venture capitalist and is now reportedly worth more than £150m. 

Last year, he joined a consortium led by MCR Hotels to buy the high-end celebrity members club Soho House & Co for $2.7 billion – a savvy and calculated move to help him keep his finger on the pulse.

Our source added: “Ashton wants to remain relevant, so being part of that buy-up was a clever way to do that.

“He might not really be mingling with the stars who go there anymore, but he wants to be associated with it.”

While he might be back on our telly soon, gracing red carpets again and showing his marriage is stronger than ever, it’s unclear if that will be enough for both Hollywood and the fans to welcome him, and indeed Mila,  back with open arms. 

The world of college football may be awash in uncertainty, but the last several weeks have proven one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Nobody runs like Notre Dame.

When the Irish got jobbed by the College Football Playoff committee and insanely were left out of the CFP, they refused to play another game this season.

Notre Dame ran from the Pop Tarts Bowl.

Then came Monday’s announcement that Notre Dame no longer will regularly play USC, essentially ending a 100-year-old rivalry because the Irish didn’t want to change the dates of the game.

Notre Dame ran from the Trojans.

Call them the Fightin’ Chickens, a once-proud Irish program that demands acquiescence or it will take its ball and go home.

The Irish could have played USC at the beginning of the season, but refused. The Irish could have kept the rivalry alive with a scheduling tweak that would have helped both teams, but refused.

Lots of folks are going to blame USC and coach Lincoln Riley for butchering a Knute Rockne-born tradition that accounted for 78 straight games, not counting 2020, the COVID-19 year. That’s wrong. Nobody has been more critical of Riley than this space, but he’s not the bad guy here.

Anybody who felt the buzz around the CFP first-round games last weekend would attest, this is where USC needs to be playing. If the Trojans truly want to return to greatness, being selected for the CFP is the goal. Not beating Notre Dame. Not even beating UCLA. It’s all about the tournament.

USC needs to put itself in the best possible position to be playing on a mid-December weekend, and that means no longer being the only Big Ten school to play a major nonconference game in the middle of the season or later.

The schedule has become tough enough. The Trojans don’t need to make it tougher with the kind of game nobody else in their conference is playing.

They need Notre Dame in August, not in late October or mid-November.

But, as it turns out, Notre Dame believes it doesn’t need USC at all.

The Irish signed a deal with the CFP that stipulates, beginning next year, if they are ranked in the top 12, they are guaranteed a playoff berth. They can get in the playoffs without risking a loss to the Trojans. They can play it safe and schedule easy and back right in.

USC doesn’t have that luxury. USC isn’t guaranteed squat. USC has a 2026 schedule that even without Notre Dame is a nightmare.

USC and Notre Dame prepare to play in a packed Notre Dame Stadium in October 2023.

(Michael Caterina / Associated Press)

Home games against Ohio State and Oregon. Road games at Indiana and Penn State.

USC doesn’t need a midseason game against Notre Dame making that road even harder.

Jennifer Cohen, the USC athletic director, said as much in a recently posted open letter to the Trojans community.

“USC is the only team in the Big Ten to play a nonconference road game after Week 4 in either of the past two seasons,” she wrote. “USC is also the only team to play a nonconference game after Week 4 in both seasons.”

Trojans fans love the rivalry. The college football world loves the rivalry. It’s Anthony Davis, it’s Carson Palmer, it’s the Bush Push, it has won Heismans and cemented championships.

But times have changed. The landscape is evolving. Everything that college football once represented is up for debate. Even the most venerable of traditions is subject to adjustments.

That’s what the Trojans wanted to do. Not eliminate, but adjust. But Notre Dame football adjusts for no one.

It was indeed a travesty that the two-loss Irish, winners of their last 10 games by double digits, did not get a spot in the national tournament. By the end of the season they were arguably one of the four best teams in the country. They easily could have captured the crown.

Tulane? James Madison? Are you kidding me? As the opening games revealed — the two AAA teams were outscored 92-44 — there is no place for Cinderellas in the CFP.

But that was no reason for Notre Dame to back out of the bowls completely, sacrificing the final game in the careers of the Irish players who will not be going to the NFL just to make a whining point that resonated with nobody.

And, besides, there’s another way Notre Dame could have been a lock for the playoffs.

Join a conference, fool!

By keeping the football team out of the otherwise Irish-infected Atlantic Coast Conference, Notre Dame is raking in big TV bucks that it doesn’t have to share. But this means the Irish are subject to the whims of a committee that could, and did, unconscionably leave them out.

Notre Dame always wants it both ways. It wants its independence, but also wants to dictate a schedule filled with conference-affiliated teams.

In demanding that their game be played in August or not at all, USC finally called Notre Dame’s bluff.

And the Irish did what they recently have done best.

They ran.

The team that initially will replace USC on the Notre Dame schedule?

It’s Brigham Young, the same team that Notre Dame snubbed in the Pop Tarts Bowl.

Put that in your toaster and cook it.

Dec. 22 (UPI) — Paramount Skydance amended its hostile bid to take over Warner Bros. Discovery, guaranteeing the backing of Larry Ellison.

“Larry Ellison has agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for the offer and any damages claims against Paramount,” the company said in a press release. Ellison also agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust or adversely transfer its assets during the pendency of the transaction.

Last week, WBD urged its shareholders not to accept Paramount’s bid, saying it wasn’t backed by billionaire Larry Ellison, father of Paramount’s CEO.

WBD agreed to sell to Netflix but Paramount, which had been in a bidding war with Netflix, mounted a hostile bid.

Paramount didn’t raise its bid of $30 a share, saying it believes the bid is superior. But it did raise its proposed reverse breakup fee to match Netflix’s offer.

“What we’ve done in this amended filing is we’ve cleared the brush of obfuscation around the offer,” said Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners, on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Monday.

RedBird is an investor in Paramount Skydance and has committed to financing the proposed purchase.

Cardinale said the bid is backed by 1.2 billion Oracle shares in an irrevocable trust.

“Like we’ve done through the six bids that we’ve made, we are being responsive to what their concerns are,” Cardinale said.

Warner Bros. Discovery shares jumped 4% in early trading Monday, while Paramount shares rose almost 6%, CNBC reported. Netflix shares dipped slightly.

“Paramount has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to acquiring WBD. Our $30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer was on Dec. 4, and continues to be, the superior option to maximize value for WBD shareholders,” David Ellison said in a statement. “Because of our commitment to investment and growth, our acquisition will be superior for all WBD stakeholders, as a catalyst for greater content production, greater theatrical output, and more consumer choice. We expect the board of directors of WBD to take the necessary steps to secure this value-enhancing transaction and preserve and strengthen an iconic Hollywood treasure for the future.”