By Scott D. Pierce

| The Salt Lake Tribune

Pasadena, Calif. • When you tune in to Monday’s episode of "Two and a Half Men," you’ll see a whole new Ashton Kutcher.

Actually, you’ll see more of him than you’ve seen since he joined the hit CBS sitcom. He’s cut his hair and shaved his beard, leaving him looking entirely clean-cut and considerably younger.

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"It’s related to the show completely," Kutcher said. "These guys wrote a screenplay that dictated that I cut my hair and shave my beard at some point."

As with everything else, Kutcher is expecting a few complaints when people see how he looks in the episode (Monday, 8 p.m., CBS | Channel 2).

"I’m sure there will be people now that I’ve cut my hair and shaved my beard that want me to have long hair and a beard," Kutcher said. "And there were people that when I had a beard and long hair wanted me to be shaved and have a haircut."

Complaints aside, Kutcher says he’s a happy man. Glad he agreed to join the cast of "Two and a Half Men." Thrilled that the show is doing so well in the ratings. Hey, he might even stay.

"I’ve had a blast," Kutcher said. "Since I stopped doing ‘That ’70s Show,’ I always wanted to go back and do television."

But he’s not signed beyond the end of this season. When creator/executive producer Chuck Lorre was asked whether Kutcher would return, he deferred to the actor.

"The deal that we structured for the show was kind of a test," Kutcher said. "Can we get the show up? Can we get it going?"

Clearly, the answer to that is a resounding yes. The ratings have dropped since the much-hyped season premiere, but the numbers — particularly the younger demographics — are better than they were last season.

"So I think that people are responding to it," Kutcher said. "And for me, having a show that people like and people want more of, that will dictate my decision."

Sounds like he’s staying. He talked about doing a couple of movies during his hiatus from the show, and by definition you return from a hiatus. But he didn’t offer a commitment.

"I’m having a lot of fun doing the show and working with these guys and would be interested in coming back if we can work that out," he said.

He didn’t look like he was having a lot of fun taking questions from a room full of journalists. After all, his private life — the end of his marriage to Demi Moore — has been the subject of enormous fascination to celebrity stalkers. But we were there to talk about "Two and a Half Men," so the subject of the soon-to-be-ex-Mrs. Kutcher never came up.

Except: For much of the press conference, Kutcher fiddled with his wedding ring, absent-mindedly, seemingly unaware that he was sitting in front of a room full of journalists.

Weird.

Scott D. Pierce’s column appears Mondays and Fridays in The Mix. Email him at spierce@sltrib.com.