Ashton Kutcher is perched neatly atop all things trendy.

He's the Twitter king and a movie star. He produces shows for TV, cable and the Internet. He's Demi Moore's husband, Rumer Willis' step-dad and more.
But 12 years ago, he was a rural-Iowa kid, trying to drop out of school. That links to “The Beautiful Life: TBL,” the glitzy new show he's producing, but doesn't appear in.
“I was 19 and somehow I managed to get into a bar and somehow I managed to get a beer,” Kutcher recalled. “I can be persuasive when I need to be.”
He was a University of Iowa engineering student, having already made one failed attempt to drop out. Now a woman asked how old he was; when the bartender was out of earshot, Kutcher told her.
“She said, 'You should be a model.'
“And I said, 'Do guys even do that?'”
The timing was ideal, Kutcher said. He:
– Wanted to be an actor. “They said, 'Well, this is a great way to get into acting.'”
– Wasn't enjoying the college experience.
“Two weeks earlier, I was really frustrated,” Kutcher said. “My roommate was having sex with his girlfriend in the top bunk and wouldn't let me in the room … I couldn't stand my roommate, (felt) overwhelmed with school and sort of just wanted to get out of Iowa.”
He soon grabbed his things and began a 10-mile walk to the airport, but he didn't get there. “I started getting tired and ended up walking to my mom's house instead. (She) took me back to college,” he said.
So Kutcher was definitely ready to try modeling. His first week in town, he was hired for a show by an emerging designer. “It's kind of all a little overwhelming … (photographer) Mario Testino was in the crowd. He's like, 'Who is that boy? Why is he walking so angry?'”
A buzz started and Kutcher was in an Abercrombie & Fitch show the next week. He did top shows worldwide, then did the things he really wanted.
He's acted in “That '70s Show” and movies. He's produced reality shows, including “Punk'd,” “Beauty and the Geek,” “Opportunity Knocks,” “True Beauty,” “The Real Wedding Crashers” and “Game Show in My Head.” At 31, he's come close to being the king of all media; three million people reportedly follow him on Twitter and nine million saw his Internet show, “Katalyst HQ.”
The next step is producing scripted network TV shows. One was the short-lived “Miss Guided”; then “TBL” was suggested by Adam Giaudrone, another former model.
“You have people like Ashton, who had a very successful career, and then you have people like me,” Giaudrone said. “I was at the highest level, but I was always struggling.”
This is a dramatic setting, Kutcher said. “You're surrounded by some of the most beautiful people you've ever seen. And then some of the most eccentric people.”
Men and women face constant advances from both sexes, Giaudrone said. “People look at you as a product, as a face or as a body, and it becomes sexualized. So you're constantly being hit on.”
Yes, that's a CW kind of show. “TBL” has Sara Paxton as a sweet beauty, Mischa Barton as a fading star with a secret, Elle Macpherson as an industry veteran and relative newcomer Benjamin Hollingsworth as a farmboy thrust into the big city.
Corbin Bleu, of “High School Musical” fame, plays a guy whose height (5-foot-10) falls short. “The idea is that the guys are supposed to be taller, when the girls are in their heels,” Giaudrome said.
That's just one of the complications of the beautiful life.

For more TV news, check out MikeHughes.tv.