Given how pop prankster Ashton Kutcher delights in pulling the pants down of celebrities for all the world to see, there's no better way to kick off a column about Mr. Demi Moore than a dose of Kutcher-related gossip mongering.

Not so long ago a friend with ties to the film industry in Vancouver was relating tales from the set of My Boss' Daughter, the insipid comedy Kutcher starred in last year.

Kutcher, the resident dufus from That '70s Show, had apparently gotten into his shaggily-coifed thick skull that he's a comic genius.

"By the end of the shoot, everybody's eyes were tired from rolling them so much listening to him want to change the script to make it what he thought would be funny," my friend said.

"He was just a jackass."

And the morale of the story is ...?

One, Kelso isn't much of a stretch.

Two, sitcom goofballs in glass houses shouldn't throw MTV-owned stones.

And three, maybe Kutcher -- who nevertheless managed to succeed in the silly thriller The Butterfly Effect earlier this year -- should forget about his big-screen career and stick to his day job of taping stars in compromising positions. This last point, of course, doesn't refer to the sex tape he is rumoured to have made with girlfriend Demi Moore. Alas, until that pet project unspools for Internet leaches the world over in glorious Paris Hilton-style streaming, we'll all have to make due with Punk'd, his first attempt at cinema verte.

Essentially an upgraded celebrity edition of Candid Camera for the pop-punk-poser era, the show follows Kutcher, along with a team of stunt doubles and performers, as they stage elaborate practical jokes on Hollywood's young stars.

As with Candid Camera, after the celebs have agonized, Kutcher springs into the room, shouting "You've been Punk'd!!"

(TV critics themselves were punked last year when Kutcher announced he was ending the series after Season No. 2. It was, in fact, a ploy to make his celebrity prey less guarded around him.)

But while the concept is undeniably appealing, the second season's episodes the Sun screened only reinforce both its charms and its failings.

In watching Punk'd, which returns to CTV June 6 and the Comedy Network June 16, you have to wonder how Kutcher continues to find celebrities who are so well-behaved. His second-season victims include hip-hop diva Missy Elliot, who is the target of "a bling sting;" pop star Hilary Duff, who has to endure a driver instructor from hell; and Usher, who finds himself in a Winona Ryder-like shopping situation.

Yet the only star who appears close to a meltdown is Halle Berry, after she's kept from entering the premiere of her movie.

Has truly embarrassing footage been excised? Or are these celebrities just so naturally self-contained that, even when they don't know they're being watched, they act like they might be?

As with all forms of reality TV, it's never as real as they want you to believe it is.

(A conversation I had with Macaulay Culkin earlier this year would appear to indicate the show's for real, though -- the former child star said Kutcher had approached him to punk a friend, but he declined the offer.)

Maybe all of this is beside the point.

Kutcher's record of public mischief -- the "cancellation" of the show, the questions surrounding his age (is he really 30?) and his relationship with Moore (have they already eloped?) -- speaks for itself.

Kutcher has figured out a way to stay in the white-hot spotlight without burning out.

When in doubt, lie. And if that doesn't work, turn it on someone else.