Kutcher inspires 'The Beautiful Life'

PASADENA, Calif. — Ashton Kutcher is not only one of the executive producers of The CW's new soap opera "The Beautiful Life: TBL," his life sort of inspired one of the lead characters.

The female lead. Really.

"TBL," as The CW is hoping we'll call it, revolves around the New York fashion industry. And at the center of the story lines are two teenage models — the already-successful Raina Marinelli (Sara Paxton) and the neophyte fresh off the farm, Chris Andrews (Benjamin Hollingsworth).

"Yes, the character of Raina is based on me," Kutcher said. And he wasn't entirely kidding. The characters are an amalgam of lots of real people, including supervising producer Adam Giaudrone, another former model.

Like Kutcher, the Chris character is from Iowa and completely unfamiliar with the fashion industry.

"But actually, my story, honestly, was probably closer to the story of Raina," Kutcher said. "And Adam's story was probably closer to the story of Chris."

Kutcher was a 19-year-old student at the University of Iowa who was "overwhelmed" by school, "couldn't stand" his roommate and "sort of just wanted to get out of Iowa and wanted to get out of my life." He was approached by a woman who said, "You should be a model."

"I didn't even know that guys modeled," he said. "Like, I really didn't even know that was a job that you could have. I thought the Marlboro Man was a real cowboy. I didn't know any of the (fashion) brands, the stuff.

"And then going from Iowa to New York, you've got this world that you've never even really heard of, and then you've got this city that is just daunting. And then you're surrounded by some of the most beautiful people you've ever seen and then some of the most eccentric people that you've ever seen in the artists and the designers and the photographers.

"So that fish-out-of-water story is completely out of water. It's a fish-in-the-desert story. And I think that it created such a great landscape for the story line for this show."

"TBL" is a glitzy soap set in a glitzy world. The characters include up-and-comers, who all seem to live at the same residential hotel. There's a supermodel who's fallen off her throne (Mischa Barton of "The O.C.") and the tough owner of a top modeling agency (Elle Mapherson).

Critics have seen only an abbreviated version of Wednesday's premiere (8 p.m., Ch. 30), but there are all sorts of soapy plot twists. Yes, it's completely over-the-top in spots. Like when the modeling agent hits on Chris, who's straight — what, he just can't find any gay guys in the New York fashion industry?

But, as soap operas go, at least this one has the potential to be trashy fun (as opposed to unwatchable junk).

As for Kutcher, he did become a top model before transitioning to acting, "That '70s Show" and movie stardom. But his modeling career didn't take off quite as quickly as the characters in "TBL."

After being told he should become a model, he "started walking to the airport. It was, like 30 minutes away from my college campus. (I) got about 10 miles down the road and started getting tired and ended up walking to my mom's house instead, who took me back to college."

Shortly thereafter, however, he won a free trip to the Big Apple and saw it as "a vehicle to sort of get out of Dodge."

"I went to New York and called home and just said, 'I'm not coming home,' " Kutcher said.

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com