Ashton Kutcher Off The Hook

According to this piece from the New York Times, the FTC will not investigate Ashton Kutcher. Surprisingly, his alleged offense is not accepting the Charlie Sheen role on Two and a Half Men. The FTC was more concerned about Kutcher’s participation in a guest editing an online edition of Details magazine. The edition profiled a number of technology companies. Kutcher failed to disclose the extent of his investments in many of them. Early word from the FTC was that it would look into whether Kutcher had violated the FTC’s endorsement guidelines. The agency, for whatever reason, is apparently backing down. It’s not clear yet the extent to which the FTC can invade the traditional editorial sphere to enforce the guidelines. It apparently decided this was not the best test case.