Ashton dumped by director

Her films have raked in £1billion at the box office while her ex-husband, Bruce Willis, reportedly made £60million from The Sixth Sense alone.

But things are not going so smoothly for Demi Moore's toyboy lover, who abandoned his new film after the director apparently begged him to take acting lessons.

Ashton Kutcher's performances in romantic drama Elizabethtown were so bad director Cameron Crowe pushed back production to give him time to improve.

But that did not work, and the acting lessons are said to have prompted a massive bust-up between the pair.

One insider claimed: 'Ashton was bad and Cameron let him have it with both barrels. Cameron was unhappy with his read-throughs.

'Ashton did several and each one was worse and worse. Cameron even postponed production because he thought the readings would get better - but they didn't.'

The 25-year-old claimed he quit over scheduling conflicts and now filming has been delayed until next spring.

It is the second high-profile drama in which Kutcher has lost out under mysterious circumstances. The actor was signed to star in Sixth Sense director M Night Shyamalan's next epic, The Village, but will now not appear in the movie. In the past, he has specialised in playing dim-witted simpletons such as in Dude, Where's My Car?, Just Married and TV's That '70s Show.

He became a household name after stepping out with 41-year-old Moore at the premiere of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.

Moore and Willis married in 1987, and she went on to star in a string of hit movies including Ghost, Striptease and A Few Good Men.

Willis has also managed to revive his career since his Die Hard days, notably in The Sixth Sense and Pulp Fiction.

Other successes include Unbreakable, and guest appearances on Friends and Ally McBeal.