Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have come out of 'hiding'. But one detail was suspicious.

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have been laying low since their fall from grace last year over their support of convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

In recent weeks they’ve slowly re-emerged into society, dipping their toes into intimate events and movie premieres to test whether the public’s anger has cooled to tepid levels.

Their most recent outing, however, shows a marked change from their usual slinking around in the shadows: it’s loud, it’s public, and, interestingly, it involves their children.

Watch: Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher say they're "aware of the pain" their letters defending Danny Masterson caused. Post continues below.

Mila and Ashton attended a WNBA game at LA’s Crypto.co Arena on Friday to watch their friend Caitlin Clark play for the team Indiana Fever. Also in attendance were the couple’s two children Wyatt, 9, and Dmitri, 7 — an incredibly rare occurrence and, dare I suggest, a strategic one?

To give a bit of a recap of why their presence at the game was so notable, Mila and Ashton landed in hot water last year when it was revealed that they wrote glowing character references for their friend and former co-star Danny Masterson, who is now serving a sentence of 30 years to life for drugging and raping two women. They’ve been close to the case given the rapes took place between 2002 and 2003, when the trio were still filming That ‘70s Show. Masterson and Ashton also reunited on The Ranch in 2016 before Masterson was fired over the sexual assault allegations.

Mila and Ashton were among more than 50 people who wrote letters imploring the judge to go easy on Masterson after he was found guilty. Ashton described Masterson as “extraordinarily honest and intentional”, and called him an “excellent role model”. Mila wrote that she “wholeheartedly vouch[es] for Danny Masterson's exceptional character” and praised him as a “dear friend” and “older brother”. Both Mila and Kunis described Masterton as being staunchly anti-drugs and a loving father, which they argued warranted a lighter sentence.

The letters obviously sparked outrage from victim-survivors across the globe, including Chrissie Carnell Bixler, one of the women who Masterson assaulted. Lawyer Colleen McCormack-Maitland told Vox that the anti-drug arguments they made in their letters were not only strange, but problematic. 

Listen to The Spill hosts explain the one suspicious detail in Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher's return. 

“There was some really weird stuff in there about villainising drug users, and saying, like, Masterson is somehow a good guy because he thinks drug use is bad. It made it seem like somehow drug use is worse than rape,” she said.

Even more damning, Mila and Kutcher are founders of Thorn — an anti-human trafficking organisation that fights child sexual abuse. It’s a pretty bad look to fund organisations for victims of abuse and then vouch for a convicted abuser. (Kutcher has since stepped down from his position as chair of the board.)

After the letters were published, Mila and Ashton took to Instagram to defend themselves in an uncomfortable video that only further calcified their place in the bowels of social media discourse. They said their letters were intended for the judge to read and not to undermine the testimony of the victims or 'retraumatise them in any way”, despite the fact that insisting a rapist is actually a good guy does exactly that.

“We support victims. We have done this historically through our work and will continue to do so in the future,” Mila said in the video. 

How writing a letter advocating for the minimising of a rapist’s sentence is “supporting victims” was left up to interpretation, I guess.

The video was even more poorly received than the letter because of the duo’s self-assured disposition (they apologised for the hurt their letter caused, but not for writing it) and their attempt to appear relatable by looking haggard and tired (they filmed in a spot on their property that conveniently blocked the gorgeous view of their designer farmhouse). Variety put it pretty aptly when it accused them of “creat[ing] their own hostage video”. 

It’s with this context in mind that their recent foray into the public is so suspicious.

The family were pictured laughing and enjoying the game together in the type of sweet, all- American-family footage that would be at home in a house insurance ad.

The whole thing is out of character for Mila and Ashton, who have been incredibly protective of their children in the past. They’ve attempted to keep the kids away from cameras because they feel this is the most ethical way to raise children as celebrities.

“We actually feel that being public is a personal choice,” Ashton said during an appearance on Arianna Huffington’s podcast in 2017.

“My wife and I have chosen a career where we’re in the public light. But my kids have not, so I think they should have the right to choose that.”

Ashton said he doesn’t want images of his kids out there that “somebody could potentially blackmail or do whatever” with, and said their “private life” is not his “to give away”.

Image: Getty. 

It’s quite a pivot to bring the two children into the limelight, especially when Mila and Ashton’s reputation is in such tatters. It’s been nine months since Masterson was sentenced to prison — is this really enough to gestate their rehabilitation and emerge into the world anew?

You’d think this is the worst time to bring the kids out of hiding — but on the other hand, for Mila and Ashton it’s quite the opposite.

You see, bringing their kids to their first public outing since their reputation imploded changes the dynamic of media coverage and takes the heat off the couple. Now, linking the outing to sexual assault trial would be crass, and even harmful. There are kids here, for Christ’s sake! Surely we can wait to have this conversation later? Families are sacred, let’s tone it down.

After all, it’s not the first time they’ve used children and parenthood to excuse and distract from bad behaviour — isn’t this exactly what Mila and Ashton crowed in their letter for Danny Masterson?

Of course, there’s no way to know for sure if this was part of some big plan. It’s possible the Kutcher family just wanted a night out with their friend, and everything else is a coincidence.

But also, celebrities of this level of fame (or infamy) have to be careful about everything they do. With that level of scrutiny, strategy is necessary for survival — so I find it hard to believe that they weren’t at least somewhat aware that the inclusion of their children in their public debut would blur the headlines in their favour.

Feature image: Getty.