Ashton Kutcher to Create AIM Stars For AOL

AOL has hired Ashton Kutcher and his production company, Katalyst, to develop several planted characters who will work their way into AOL's AIM community. The characters, each part five separate projects, will "appear" in 20 episodic storylines which, yes, will be sponsored by advertisers. Katalyst Partner Jason Goldberg says he hopes to create the first Internet star. Of course, star, is a reletive term but we think Goldberg might be too young to have remember one of the first stars of the Internet, the I Kiss You Mahir guy who did his thing back in 1999 or so. OK, so we're talking a vastly different caliber of "star" here but it's not like this effort will be the first time an given entity has risen to fame. That said, if these characters can inject a bit of humor into our day, we might be able to deal with the goons that incessantly IM us.