The National Enquirer has a very interesting story about Rumer Willis and her step dad, Ashton Kutcher. Not surprisingly, as Demi’s oldest and closest in age to Ashton (closer in age to him than Demi), Rumer apparently turns to Ashton for advice… and for money. The Enquirer claims that Rumer “fell in love” with a two-bedroom LA bungalow that was suitably “not far from her favorite celebrity hotspots.” The problem? The $1 million price tag, which Rumer couldn’t afford. I guess she’s supporting herself as an actress? And that’s probably why she doesn’t have the money, just a guess. What? I wasn’t trying to be a bitch. Okay, I was. Rumer can’t act, and it doesn’t surprise me that she can’t afford a starter home. Granted, most 21-year-olds can’t afford their own $1 million home. But didn’t you know that Rumer is a movie star?!?

“At first Rumer felt awkward asking Ashton for help,” a source told the Enquirer. “She knows that not all step dads would be so happy to help out with such a big commitment. But Ashton said he would be very happy to help with the purchase, especially when he saw how much she wanted the house. He thinks of her as his own daughter, so it was impossible for him to say no.”

The house is in the same quiet neighborhood as Sacha Baron Cohen’s home, and it’s close to several major studios, so Rumer will have a short commute to casting calls.

The Enquirer has obtained a copy of the deed to her house, which shows that Ashton and Rumer each own 50 percent of the property. Ashton is listed under his birth name of Christopher.

Added the source: “Rumer has been having a blast picking out furniture and decorations to give the place her personal touch.”

[From The Enquirer, print edition]

Question: why didn’t Demi or Bruce help Rumer with the purchase? Were they trying to apply a little tough financial love on their daughter and get her to only purchase what she can afford? And then she ran to her step dad and begged him to buy her a house. I should feel sympathetic, but I’m having my own real estate woes, so f-ck her.

By the way, last weekend Ashton did an extensive interview with The Daily Mail, and he talked about his stepdaughters, his wife and Bruce, of course. The whole thing is worth a read, but there were a couple of interesting quotes I wanted to pull:

I’d sworn off relationships before I met my wife.
We met in New York, where I was hosting Saturday Night Live, and at the time I was saying to myself, ‘I’m going to party, I’m going to sleep with this girl and that girl and just have a good time.’ And then I met Demi and it was like, ‘I can’t not be with this person.’ I think it’s fate in a way. Anyone who’s looking for a relationship can’t find one, but as soon as you let go of the need or desire, it’ll show up, just like that.

Bruce (Willis) is one of my favourite people to hang out with.
At first it was difficult. You think, ‘He’s the guy who used to sleep with my wife’, but once you overcome the jealousy, which is just your own personal insecurity, it gets easier. People ask us, ‘How do you guys get on so well?’ Well, I don’t like everything Bruce does, and I’m sure he doesn’t think everything I do is great. But being with Bruce is normal to me now. We go scuba-diving, skiing, we hang out with the girls together, we watch movies, we talk about sport.

It’s really easy to fly on a private plane and have no idea how much that costs.
I make sure all three of our girls know the value of money and have the experience of doing some physical, blue-collar labour like I did. They really know what it’s like to graft. They’ve worked in a store. I had Rumer work on a construction site with my dad for a while, and Scout went to Guatemala working for Habitat for Humanity and helped to build a house. I think it’s so important.

There’s no such thing as a bad kid; there are just good kids who make bad decisions.
One of the things I do now is go and talk to kids in juvenile detention. I tell them, ‘I’m the guy who sat in jail, I’m the guy who walked around town with my baseball cap down, I’m the guy who tried drugs, I’m the guy who got a girl pregnant.’ When I was a kid, I did all that. Now the world has accepted me. Some people may not like my work, but in some ways I’ve become a role model. So remember, the next time you think of one of those people as bad, they’re just like Ashton. Because the truth is, I was that guy, 100 percent, but I turned my life around.

[From The Daily Mail]

He got a who what now? Pregnant? What? Is there some Kutcher love child that we have no idea about? Or maybe the girl had a miscarriage or abortion. In which case, none of our business. But I found the “value of money” thing very interesting, especially given the $1 million house purchase. Could it be that he’s made Rumer a loan and she has to pay him back directly? If that’s the case, poor Rumer. Having a step-father as “the bank”. Yikes.

Addition pic: Aston & Rumer on May 1, 2010. Credit: WENN.