Pinkston: Post-'Punk'd'

[Brian]

Ryan Pinkston, known for harassing celebs on MTV's "Punk'd," braved the red carpet himself on Sunday, Dec. 14 for the premiere of "Cheaper by the Dozen" to support his friend Ashton Kutcher.
The pint-sized actor emerged unscathed from the event, which fell on the same day that the final new episode of "Punk'd" aired. Kutcher, the evil mastermind behind the celebrity pranking show, recently announced that it would not return for a third season.

Although Pinkston, who turns 16 in February, admits he's "a little disappointed," he takes pride in being one of the original cast members.


"I go on the MTV website and it says 'Punk'd Veterans,'" and I'm one of them," he tells Zap2it.com. "It's awesome."
Pinkston, with co-stars Dax Shepherd and Al Shearer, played elaborate tricks on unsuspecting victims in the first season of the show. He insists that no rivalry exists between his cast and the current season's, saying, "They gotta do what they gotta do. Of course I'm a little biased. I think the first season was better."

The actor's trademark prank was posing as a cub reporter at Hollywood red carpet events and asking celebs inappropriate or sometimes shocking questions.

In one particular episode, when actor Pauly Shore declared that he had been taking a break from acting, Pinkston countered with, "But eight years, man?"

Naturally, Pinkston has encountered some irritated stars, but he says they never get too angry, insisting, "They all know it's in good fun."

If anyone did intend to get violent with the actor, they'd have to contend with his second-degree black belt in wushu kung fu and first-degree black belt in tae kwon do karate. Pinkston recently displayed these martial arts skills in Robert Rodriguez's "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over."

Despite his quick rise to fame, the actor remains grounded, for which he credits Kutcher.

"He taught me that not everyone in this business has to be big-headed and everything," Pinkston tells Zap2it, "and if I [am], he'll punch me back down to earth."

Pinkston makes a cameo appearance in "Bad Santa" and will play Tom Arnold's son in the upcoming comedy "Soul Plane" starring Snoop Dogg and Method Man, due out next year. He's also currently working on his new show for MTV, "The Ryan Pinkston Thing," a cross between "Punk'd" and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," which is tentatively scheduled for March 2004.