Kutcher: Dude, Where's My Career Heading?

April 22, 2005 — -- Ashton Kutcher doesn't bother denying his boy toy reputation, and he doesn't mind playing it to his advantage. He's even promising to strip down and model underwear if he gets what he wants -- big-screen credibility in romantic comedy.

Kutcher hits theaters today with "A Lot Like Love," his second romantic comedy this year. Critics hammered him pretty hard for "Guess Who," but that movie opened at No. 1 at the box office last month. Now he's promising something special for a repeat performance.

"If we are the number-one movie in America, I will do a Calvin Klein underwear campaign," Kutcher told Access Hollywood earlier this week.

Maybe Kutcher is just setting up another prank for his hit TV show "Punk'd." Then again, the 27-year-old comic, oft derided as Demi Moore's boy toy, came to New York eight years ago as a male model, and he's already worked the catwalk for Calvin Klein.

Kutcher has always been an easy target for critics. Maybe it began with his airhead persona on "That '70s Show." Maybe he'll never be forgiven for "Dude, Where's My Car?"

Nevertheless, Kutcher's entire career has been a series of unlikely successes. Back in 1997, he was sweeping up Cheerios dust at a General Mills factory in his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for $12 an hour. He had dropped out of the University of Iowa, where he was studying biochemical engineering, to become a male model.

Kutcher won the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling contest. He was brought to New York, and less than a year later, he was cast in one of Fox TV's top comedies.

Now, after being repeatedly dismissed as a joke, he doesn't mind playing that to his advantage.

"I like being nude as often as I can get nude," Kutcher says, joking with reporters at a press event for his new film. In the movie, he and Amanda Peet begin a seven-year, on-again, off-again affair after meeting on an airplane and having sex, before even knowing each other's name.

But Kutcher also wants to undercut his beefcake image. "I'm not like the guy in my movie," he says. "I'm pretty shy about that initial conversation."

Hollywood gossip hounds still have trouble coming to terms with Kutcher's relationship with Moore, 15 years his senior. In the early days, some said it was just a publicity stunt. Then they said it was just a fling.

But now, Kutcher and Moore are celebrating their second year together -- a near miracle in the world of celebrity.