Kutcher vows to date Aniston
Hollywood prankster Ashton Kutcher has vowed to fulfil a long-standing bet and go on a date to Pizza Hut with his teenage crush, actor Jennifer Aniston.
Kutcher has a couple of hurdles to overcome, including convincing his wife, Demi Moore, and Aniston's boyfriend, Vince Vaughn, it is a good idea.
Aniston also might need some convincing, as she has already spurned one date with Kutcher.
Kutcher's desire to date the Friends' star came from a $US1000 bet he made as a teenager with a friend in his hometown of Iowa.
"I'll tell you, that date will happen," Kutcher told reporters in Los Angeles while promoting his new action film, The Guardian.
"I will have to ask my wife for permission, but that date will happen."
Kutcher made the bet when he was an unknown, but his rising career in Hollywood with films and two hit TV series, That '70s Show and celebrity prank program Punk'd, gave him the opportunity to ask Aniston out on a date.
At the time Aniston was married to Brad Pitt and Pitt had no problem with it, but Aniston stood Kutcher up.
"I asked him for permission to ask her and he said, 'Yeah cool. I'll film it'," Kutcher said.
"We had a date set up to go to Pizza Hut and then when it came time, she didn't want to go.
"I was serious and I think she thought I was joking.
"It's not about the 1,000 bucks.
"It's about saying you're going to do something and doing it."
Kutcher's determination echoes his character in The Guardian, where he plays a young recruit in the US Coast Guard's rescue swimmer program.
Rescue swimmers are called on to leap from helicopters in the middle of storms and mountainous seas to save sailors on stricken ships.
They are on call 24 hours a day and quickly dispatched to disaster sites, such as New Orleans last year after Hurricane Katrina.
Kutcher, who married Moore last year, said actors share some similarities with rescue swimmers, such as spending long periods away from their families.
The actor treats Moore's three daughters with her former husband, actor Bruce Willis, as his own.
"We get put on location to do a film in Louisiana while my girls are in school in Los Angeles," said Kutcher, talking about the stresses of working away from home.
"I'm not going to pull them out of school.
"It's not easy.
"It's three months at a time.
"I think it's very similar to what these rescue swimmers have to do a lot."
The Guardian is playing in Australian theatres now.
