Posts Tagged ‘“The Beautiful Life”’

 The CW network has tapped the talents of two Eastern Iowa natives for its fall lineup.

Ashton Kutcher

 As expected, the CW picked up the pilot for “Melrose Place,”  in which Iowa City native Laura Leighton, 41, will reprise her role of Sydney Andrew from the original Fox series.

Laura Leighton

  “The Beautiful Life,” created and produced by Ashton Kutcher, also was part of the lineup unveiled by the network Thursday.

The drama focuses on beautiful young people as they struggle to make it in modeling. Which is something  that Kutcher, who  was born in Cedar Rapids, knows about.  After winning the Fresh Faces of Iowa  modeling contest 12 years ago, he headed for New York City to pursue a modeling career .

The parallels did not escape the notice of Zap2it news, which described Kutcher’s new show this way:

“Executive producer Ashton Kutcher presents “The Ashton Kutcher Story” — sort of. One of the show’s central characters (Benjamin Hollingsworth) is an Iowa farm boy — like Kutcher once was — who gets discovered by a modeling agent in New York.”

In addition to wracking up more than 1 million followers on Twitter, the 31-year-old actor has produced a string of TV series, including “Punk’d,” “Beauty and the Geek,” “The Real Wedding Crashers,” “Opportunity Knocks” and “True Beauty.” 

As for Leighton, it’s a mystery as to how Sydney is alive, as the character was thought to have died after being hit by a car two years before the original “Melrose Place” went off the air.

Reportedly, something else about her role is shrouded in mystery. If you DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED,  do not read this report from EW.com