News Segment

GENE SIMMONS LAWSUIT WON’T GO AWAY:

November 14, 2005

Gene Simmons may have put the “x” in sex, but a former girlfriend of the rocker now has the green light to put the “s” in sue.

A New York judge ruled Georgeann Walsh Ward may proceed with her defamation suit against the KISS bassist for comments he made during a VH1 show about his glory days with the band.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Rosalyn Richter quashed Simmons’ motion to nix two of three claims by Ward, who alleges Simmons slandered her in the documentary When KISS Ruled the World by calling her a “sex-addicted nymphomaniac.”

In her January lawsuit filing, the 55-year-old said that Simmons’ remarks in the special, accompanied by photographs of her, exposed her to “shame, contempt, ridicule, ostracism, degradation and/or disgrace.”

The VH1 doc has aired multiple times over the past year on the cable net in U.S. and on Canada’s Much Music, much to Ward’s dismay.

In the “rockumentary,” Simmons delves into his infamous sexual trysts, boasting that he bedded nearly 5,000 groupies over the band’s 30-year-career.

“All I ever thought about was sex,” Simmons said in the doc. Per Ward’s suit, the statement was followed by a photo of Ward with Simmons. She says pictures of her appeared in the special no less than 11 times in the context of sex and groupies.

The Chester, New York, native does not dispute sleeping with Simmons. However, she claimed to have been in an “exclusive, monogamous, romantic relationship” with the “Lick It Up” singer.

Ward says both she and Simmons were involved in a normal three-year romance when she was a 21-year-old college student and he was living with his mother in Queens–before he shot to fame as the blood-spitting monster-faced member of KISS

But the pics provided by Simmons for When KISS Ruled made Ward seem “wild” and “unchaste,” according to her suit.

Ward’s suit seeks unspecified damages from Simmons, his company, KISS Catalog, and VH1 parent Viacom of defamation and invasion of privacy.

Attempts to reach Simmons’ legal rep Friday were not successful.

The blood-spewing rocker, meanwhile, found another outlet on VH1 this past year.

Simmons attempted to turn a group of English music prep school students into a hard rocking band in his Gene Simmons’ Rock School.

The rocker also has another television show in the works with A&E, according to his Website.

Courtesy of www.eonline.com