Even though I haven’t watched a trailer or read a description of the upcoming new movie, Friends with Benefits, starring Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake, I’m pretty sure I know exactly what happens. Here’s how I imagine the elevator pitch: finding themselves in the midst of a romantic drought, two pals agree that a no-strings-attached casual sex arrangement is an awesome, sane idea that will never go awry. They set some boundaries and terms, things go great the first time, and then they start to get attached and develop feelings for each other and everything goes awry. Hilarious hijinks ensue, but through the trials and tribulations they realize that they wanted to be together all along. I’m prepared to eat my pillow if they don’t end up together in the end.
Despite the ridiculously transparent plot of a movie called Friends with Benefits, the studio is promoting the life out of it. There are promotional posters in every other subway station and billboards on the street, the stars themselves have been making the rounds on entertainment shows and showing up on magazine covers, and this has been going on for months now.
This month, the lovely Mila Kunis fronts GQ‘s comedy issue and Justin Timberlake joined her on the cover of Elle. The publicity has even reached Afghanistan, where a stationed Marine Sergeant, Scott Moore, posted a video to YouTube asking the Friends with Benefits actress to be his date for the Marine Corps Ball in North Carolina (clip below).
After a little prodding from co-star JT (“You need to do it for your country!”), Kunis accepted the date and probably made one Marine very, very happy.
This whole episode would be a much better premise for a movie than the one Kunis actually made. There’s a little bit of everything: the military, a war zone, online dating, celebrity. I bet that in real life we’ll see that Kunis and Sgt. Moore don’t end up together in the end, although I’m hoping they do. That would be an ending I could really get behind.
[CelebDirtyLaundry, AnythingHollywood, INeedMyFix, DailyStab, RightCelebrity, GirlsTalkinSmack, HaveUHeard]
