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Mila Kunis: American Dream

Jewish actress attends Marine Corps Ball with Afghanistan veteran

by
Adam Chandler
November 21, 2011
Mila Kunis and Sgt. Scott Moore at the Marine Corps Ball Nov. 18.(Mila Kunis Online)
Mila Kunis and Sgt. Scott Moore at the Marine Corps Ball Nov. 18.(Mila Kunis Online)

Between news of some unsavory goings on at an Iranian nuclear site, bomb plots and glossy magazines, the continued misery of Scroll czar Marc Tracy’s Washington Redskins, etc., the Thanksgiving week hasn’t lifted spirits much around these parts.

Which is why we’re taking so much delight in the fact that actress Mila Kunis—of great fame, beauty, and Jewish extraction—made the dreams of one Sgt. Scott Moore come true by attending the Marine Corps Ball in Greenville, North Carolina, as his date.

The story goes something like this: Back in June, Sgt. Scott Moore filmed a video from Afghanistan in which he invited Kunis to attend the Marine Corps Ball with him. Four million YouTube views, some pressure from her Friends with Benefits co-star Justin Timberlake, and one averted scheduling crisis later, the Black Swan star made good on her promise to go with him this past weekend. The event, which was rightly closed to the press, took on a somber tone due to the absence of seven members of Moore’s unit killed in action.

Beneath the corrupting fashion-and-tabloid sheen of this story is a good moment between Hollywood and the military, a famous actress and both her country and her fans, and a sergeant and his unlikely wish. In other words: a real Thanksgiving story.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.