Mila Kunis Stumps for Wrong Kentucky Product

I didn't want to believe it, but it's true: Mila Kunis, who once played a girl that scored a bag of pot to impress a boy on "That '70s Show," is now stumping for Jim Beam instead of Mary Jane on TV.

According to AdAge Magazine, "While bourbon used to be consumed about 80% by men, the split is now closer to 70% male and 30% female, with flavored bourbon varieties nearly split down the middle."

This seems to be why the US's #2 bourbon brand has moved from spokespeople like Kid Rock to "the petite and beautiful Ms. Kunis, who is said to appeal both to men and to young women." In 2010, Beam introduced its first TV campaign for Skinnygirl, a lower-calorie, ready-to-serve cocktail line aimed at women, a trend that was lamented for health reasons in 2006 when "Sex in the City" was implicated in the increase in drinking among women.

You never saw the bong you knew was being passed around the basement circle in "That '70s Show," but now you can see Kunis enjoying her liquor on boob tubes everywhere. Liquor ads did not appear on any TV, national or local, for much of the 20th century, with the industry honoring a self-imposed ban from 1948 to 1996, according to AdAge. But a few years ago CBS began accepting liquor ads during late-night programming and ABC started running hard-liquor ads during "Jimmy Kimmel Live." In 2010, NBC began accepting spirits shows airing after 11 p.m. Eastern as long as 90% of the audience is of legal drinking age. (Industry self-regulations allow beer, wine or liquor ads only on programs where at least 71.6% of the audience is 21 or older.) 

Meanwhile, state law in Colorado forbids legal marijuana stores from advertising on media where more than 30 percent of the intended audience is younger than 21, even though it's the safer substance; and a Weedmaps ad has been pulled from Times Square. Adding to the irony, Kentucky, where Jim Beam and the Kunis commercials are made, was once better known for hemp (Mary Todd Lincoln's ancestors were prominent hemp farmers there). And one of the new Jim Beam ads features a reference to Prohibition (also the wrong one).

UPDATE: One reader points out this story is even stranger because Kunis is pregnant (and showing quite a bit at this point, in paparazzi pics of she and fiancé Ashton Kutcher visiting the Abita Brewing Company in Louisiana where all "enjoyed sampling the beer—except mom-to-be Kunis, of course." Source.) 

Also see: First Kentucky hemp crop in decades set for planting

Fast Times at Spike TV

Fast Times At Ridgemont High director Amy Heckerling (the only woman in the picture at left) was in attendance to see her film inducted into Spike TV's "Guy Movie Hall of Fame" last night in Culver City, along with castmembers Sean Pean (in his memorable stoner role), Judge Reinhold and Forest Whitaker.

Ridgemont High is a cut above the average "stoner guy" or high school comedy; it's got heart, wit, and a finesse sorely lacking in the usual fare. Heckerling got noticed for the film and went on to write "Clueless" (1995) and the "Look Who's Talking" films, based on her experience as a mother. She pairs again with "Clueless" star Alicia Silverstone in this year's "Vamps," about Vampires in New York and their dating choices.

The female cast of the 1982 movie had better things to do that night. Jennifer Jason Leigh is busy winning raves on Broadway in The House of Blue Leaves with Ben Stiller and Edie Falco. And Phoebe Cates hasn't acted since she married Kevin Klein, had his kids, and opened a boutique in New York.

Also missing from the Spike festivities was Ridgemont High's author, Cameron Crowe ("Almost Famous") and Spicoli's stoner buddies Anthony Edwards and Eric Stoltz. Edwards will play Beat poet publisher Lawrence Ferlingetti in 2012's Big Sur, based on a novel by VIP Jack Kerouac. Whitaker, who played the jock in the film, is set to play Very Important Pothead Louis Armstrong in an upcoming biopic, which is said to include Louis's love of the herb in the script.

Mark Wahlberg, who earlier this year admitted he'd smoked pot but was now afraid to do so around his daughter, won the "Guy of the Year" award. Award winner Jim Carrey hasn't quite come clean, but discussing performing a bungee jumping stunt on TV's "Ellen" (12/17/2008), he said "I’m thinking, If there is a God, How do I explain that trip to Amsterdam when I was 19 and saying Yes to everything?"

VIPs Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz were presenters, and Mila Kunis deservedly took home the "Holy Grail of Hot." VIP Jennifer Aniston also deserved her "Decade of Hotness" award. (Apparently, smoking pot makes you hot.)

The Guys Choice Awards, at which Keith Richards received recognition for his "brass balls", will air on Spike TV on Friday June 10 at 9 PM.