Some may have thought that pairing the politically minded Arianna Huffington with a Gen-X actor/entrepreneur like Ashton Kutcher didn’t make sense—particularly for a Q&A focused on the future of digital entertainment. But the discussion at our Year-End Digital Media Review and Mixer revealed that the two had more in common than you might expect: they both believe that the Internet and online content have permanently changed American politics and they both explained how their respective industries are struggling to bridge the analog/digital gap. Huffington also shed some light on how her company plans to spend some of that $25 million in funding it announced last week:

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—Should SAG strike for more digital rights and revenues?: “Given the economy, I don’t think that anybody wants to see people not working right now,” Kutcher said. “The really tricky thing is—where’s the income going to come from? I think we need to figure out how to generate money digitally first before we can decide how it will be divvied up. [With online content] it’s not a situation where syndication is a cookie-cutter business. If studios sell a TV show or film into syndication, there’s a clear view of where the revenue will come from. On the Web, that’s not clear. If a video gets posted to a MySpace or Facebook page, who’s paying that syndication cost? If there’s a commercial that’s aired before the clip, who pays? Does the user have to pay the syndication fee? How is the income going to be generated? We need to answer that before we can answer any other questions.” 

—The trouble with Hollywood: Kutcher said it’s clear that studios and networks are facing the same financial issues gripping the print and music industries. “Hollywood and even the TV networks have a huge dependency issue. They have a premium product with a premium price tag and premium revenue stream, and they’re trying to move it into an online landscape that won’t support it. They’re only using the Web to support the giant—not creating original content.” More after the jump.