Pop Fiction, an eight-episode series, is a prank show targeting paparazzi and gullible media outlets. It's made with the eager help of stars, who were the laughing stocks of Kutcher's former MTV show.

This time the shoe's on the other foot, and the series has been kept so tightly under wraps that E!'s own website fell victim to the Hilton hoax and other planted stories that producers won't yet divulge.

"You're speaking their language. We live in a culture that's driven by media and obsessed with celebrity, to the point where they don't have private lives anymore," [Kutcher's producing partner Jason] Goldberg says.

"Two people going out to eat turns into, 'They're engaged.' It's a feeding frenzy. It's dangerous and it's irresponsible in some cases."

So elaborate and convincing are these paparazzi punji sticks, that even more legitimate media outlets have found themselves duped. What Harper's Bazaar, for example, thought was an exclusive interview with the Kutcher-Moores was, in fact, yet another planted Pop Fiction prank. All that spiritual horseshit about how Kabbalah has helped Ashton and Demi through the rough patches was actually just a brilliant satire of what they imagined a vapid Hollywood couple would say in a fawning fashion magazine profile. Face it, Harper's: You've been pap'd!

• Has Ashton Kutcher 'Punk'd' the paparazzi? [usatoday.com]

Tom Waits summed it up well: "Come down off the cross, We can use the wood". I concur.

Anyone remember the end of Broadcast News? ... William Hurt's character uses tears to promote himself and further his career

It absolutely pisses me off beyond belief to have my character assassinated in public and I'd really like to fight back. The truth is that Kathy will always have the last word in any public argument because she has a TV show and standup gigs in which she could endlessly respond to what I've said.

We find it somewhat improbable that Moline is the con man his ex-wife makes him out to be, deviously subjecting himself to a mere six years' worth of servitude to Griffin and "her Gays," all the while savoring the modest payday lying in wait for him at the end of the ordeal. It's hardly surprising, then, that Moline should turn to blogging to broadcast his side of the story, as he has no Bravo reality show to call his own—though that might be something the network might want to consider, launching a mid-season companion piece entitled Matt Moline: My Life On Kathy Griffin's Shoe Money.

• First Episode - A Response [Salad Days via RealityBlurred.com]