Sheen’s role ends as Kutcher joins hit comedy series

Ashton Kutcher has moved into the star role on the hit US television series Two and a Half Men – and US celebrity media revealed how Charlie Sheen’s character dies in the show.

Kutcher joined the cast after Sheen, who earned $2 million per episode for his role as the erratic, hedonistic bachelor, was famously fired from the show in March for slamming its producers in outbursts that Warner Brothers described as part of his ‘self-inflicted disintegration’.

Charlie Harper is being killed off during a funeral episode of the CBS sitcom, and TMZ reports the gory details of the jingle writer’s demise, citing sources who attended the taping.

Brace yourself – for both major spoilers and some truly gruesome imagery.

According to TMZ’s taping attendee, the plot lays out how Rose (played by Melanie Lynskey) – the neighbour who had been doggedly pursuing Harper, and whom Harper brought to Paris last season – married Harper while in the City of Lights, but later caught him cheating on her in the shower.

According to TMZ, Rose speaks at Charlie’s funeral, telling everyone that while she and her spouse were waiting in a Paris subway station the day after the shower incident, Charlie ‘slipped’ onto the tracks, in front of an oncoming train, resulting in a ‘meat explosion’.

From the funeral, the episode reportedly shifts the narrative over to Charlie’s beach house, which is in the process of being sold – with numerous celebrity guest stars playing prospective buyers.
 
As for Sheen, he told TMZ he’ll definitely tune in.

“I have always been told that I have nine lives, so it’s going to be amazing to witness my own funeral, which is clearly a win-win situation, because Ashton has just given me a 10th."

The season premiere of Two and a Half Men – which airs on September 19 – will feature Harper’s funeral, with many of his long line of former conquests stopping by to bid him farewell. The guest stars on the episode are said to include Jenny McCarthy, playing a former flame of Harper’s, and John Stamos, as Harper’s onetime party buddy who joined him in some of his exploits.

Kutcher, 33, agreed to join the cast in May and enters the show ensemble as a brokenhearted Internet billionaire.
Two and a Half Men has been a hit since it was launched in 2003 and has been nominated for numerous awards, including nods for Sheen at the Emmys and Golden Globes.

“Preparing to tape the first ep of 2.5. Little nervous. All will be revealed!” Kutcher announced on his Twitter account just before filming for the new season began.

Kutcher rose to fame as the handsome, dim-witted Michael Kelso in the TV comedy That 70s Show. He also produced the practical joke show Punk’d and has starred in a handful of movies. He is married to actress Demi Moore, 48.

Filming of Two and a Half Men was cancelled for the rest of the season in February following Sheen’s public tirades against producer Chuck Lorre.

In addition to his reported substance abuse, Sheen, 45, had several run-ins with the law in the 1990s in cases related to drugs, domestic violence and prostitution.