Gene Simmons

You know how shows like "The X Factor" are supposed to be about giving every little girl who ever sang into her hairbrush in Smalltown, USA, and every little boy who ever moonwalked across his living room in Hard Luck City a shot at realizing his or her dream? Yeah, well, they're also apparently about giving the progeny of world famous celebrities a chance to grab the spotlight, too - at least until the judges' goodwill runs out. Remember Jim Carrey's daughter on "American Idol" last season?

Rock into spring later this month with KISS legends Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons when they open a Rock & Brews restaurant in San Jose del Cabo. The Baja California restaurant is the second location for Rock & Brews . The first opened last year in El Segundo, near Los Angeles International Airport . Others are planned for Redondo Beach; Paia, Maui; and Kansas City, Mo.   Stanley and Simmons are partners in the restaurants.  A grand-opening party will be held March 22 at the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Golf & Spa Resort, Los Cabos, which is offering a KISS Army Rock & Brews weekend package to welcome Stanley and Simmons.

The presence of Valentino Garavani, founder of the brand that bears his name, created quite the buzz at the Valentino haute couture show Wednesday. Well-wishers made a beeline to his front row seat, beside longtime partner Giancarlo Giacommetti. Now that Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli design the line, we asked Valentino's opinion of the label's direction. "I like it very much," he replied. "It is keeping the mood and spell of Valentino and that is very important. " Also on scene were the VVIP fashion pack including editors Anna Wintour of Vogue Magazine, Glenda Bailey of Harper's Bazaar and Carine Roitfeld of CR Fashion Book, formerly of Paris Vogue.

The presence of Valentino Garavani, founder of the brand that bears his name, created quite the buzz at the Valentino haute couture show Wednesday. Well-wishers made a beeline to his front row seat, beside longtime partner Giancarlo Giacommetti. Now that Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli design the line, we asked Valentino's opinion of the label's direction. "I like it very much," he replied. "It is keeping the mood and spell of Valentino and that is very important. " Also on scene were the VVIP fashion pack including editors Anna Wintour of Vogue Magazine, Glenda Bailey of Harper's Bazaar and Carine Roitfeld of CR Fashion Book, formerly of Paris Vogue.

Rock into spring later this month with KISS legends Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons when they open a Rock & Brews restaurant in San Jose del Cabo. The Baja California restaurant is the second location for Rock & Brews . The first opened last year in El Segundo, near Los Angeles International Airport . Others are planned for Redondo Beach; Paia, Maui; and Kansas City, Mo.   Stanley and Simmons are partners in the restaurants.  A grand-opening party will be held March 22 at the Sheraton Hacienda del Mar Golf & Spa Resort, Los Cabos, which is offering a KISS Army Rock & Brews weekend package to welcome Stanley and Simmons.

Gene Simmons knows a thing or two about night life, and now he has a new gig: bar owner. The KISS leader is one of three principals behind the recently remodeled, music-focused craft beer spot Rock & Brews, and keeping his attention at one of its outdoor bar stools is no easy task. Two sentences into explaining why chefs are the new rock stars, a pair of onlookers capture Simmons' eye. He stops the interview, and waves two young women into the sidewalk-adjacent El Segundo beer garden.

The party was already plenty glam, especially for El Segundo. Tall, beautiful women everywhere. Free-flowing booze and plates of hot sausages. Rock stars from Velvet Revolver and the Village People. Lots of - maybe too much - leather. And then Gene Simmons appeared. It wasn't even just the fact that he appeared, it was how he did it - on a ledge high above his guests' heads in the concert hall-esque dining area of Rock & Brews, his new El Segundo restaurant. (This was before another spectacle later in the week where he professed on Twitter to have NOT endorsed Mitt Romney.

What worlds are left for Gene Simmons to conquer? He's survived 22 Kiss albums (15 have gone platinum says Simmons, who keeps count), headlined concerts everywhere, embarked on an acting career (largely as a Hollywood heavy), romanced everyone from Cher and Diana Ross to Playmate Shannon Tweed and emerged as one of the elder statesmen of the heavy-metal underworld. Now Simmons wants to be a record mogul.

Rockabilly singer and songwriter Jumpin' Gene Simmons, who worked with Elvis Presley and had a top 20 hit in 1964 with the bouncy "Haunted House," has died. He was 69. He died Tuesday at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after a long illness, according to Holland-Harris Funeral Directors. Simmons -- not to be confused with the KISS bassist with the same name -- was in show business for more than 50 years, working with such artists as Sam Phillips and the Bill Black Combo.

Not much bothers Gene Simmons, whose cartoonish rock band KISS has shrugged off critics' barbs for two decades while selling some 75 million albums worldwide and inspiring countless young musicians--from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Hootie & the Blowfish's Darius Rucker to Courtney Love and Garth Brooks. But as the fortysomething bassist sits poolside at a West Hollywood hotel eating a lunch of Chinese chicken salad and iced tea on a bright, breezy day, he shifts uncomfortably in his chair.

In the same way it's hard to criticize a mutt for eating scraps off the floor, slobbering or getting lusty on a random person's leg, who's to begrudge KISS releasing another record about thunder, sex, lightning, outcasts, hell, rock 'n' roll, thunder and sex? It's what established Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley and the two other guys who aren't Ace Frehley or Peter Criss(for the record, Tommy Thayer on guitar and Eric Singer on drums). Given this truth, KISS' new album, "Monster," is a fantastic dog: Protective, loyal, fun to be around but ferocious when it needs to be. It's also mostly dumb as a post - but that doesn't mean it isn't awesome.

You know how shows like "The X Factor" are supposed to be about giving every little girl who ever sang into her hairbrush in Smalltown, USA, and every little boy who ever moonwalked across his living room in Hard Luck City a shot at realizing his or her dream? Yeah, well, they're also apparently about giving the progeny of world famous celebrities a chance to grab the spotlight, too - at least until the judges' goodwill runs out. Remember Jim Carrey's daughter on "American Idol" last season?

Rock star/opportunist Gene Simmons is bringing his growing beer empire to downtown Los Angeles, at least for a week. The Kiss leader, with celebrity chef  Wolfgang Puck and restaurant impresario Michael Zislis, will stage a seven-day Octoberfest celebration at downtown's L.A. Live. Full details about what beer will be available hasn't been made public yet, but Simmons is no stranger to craft beer. He's a partner in the budding Rock & Brews chain, which has its flagship location in El Segundo.

The party was already plenty glam, especially for El Segundo. Tall, beautiful women everywhere. Free-flowing booze and plates of hot sausages. Rock stars from Velvet Revolver and the Village People. Lots of - maybe too much - leather. And then Gene Simmons appeared. It wasn't even just the fact that he appeared, it was how he did it - on a ledge high above his guests' heads in the concert hall-esque dining area of Rock & Brews, his new El Segundo restaurant. (This was before another spectacle later in the week where he professed on Twitter to have NOT endorsed Mitt Romney.

Gene Simmons knows a thing or two about night life, and now he has a new gig: bar owner. The KISS leader is one of three principals behind the recently remodeled, music-focused craft beer spot Rock & Brews, and keeping his attention at one of its outdoor bar stools is no easy task. Two sentences into explaining why chefs are the new rock stars, a pair of onlookers capture Simmons' eye. He stops the interview, and waves two young women into the sidewalk-adjacent El Segundo beer garden.

As if Las Vegas needed any more flavor. A new soul food eatery is opening in the City of Sin, helmed by rapper and reality-TV personality Flavor Flav. With a ribbon-cutting scheduled for March 15, the House of Flavor Restaurant will join the unceasing march of celebrity-backed food ventures . The menu will be dominated by fried chicken, along with other options such as red velvet waffles -- all made using recipes and secret spice rubs that the restaurant's  management says were developed by the star.

As the tongue-wagging singer for the rock band KISS, Gene Simmons likes to brag about turning a band into a brand. Behind the garish makeup, Simmons, 56, was the driving force behind a blitzkrieg of KISS-themed products, including lunch pails and caskets. The band's heyday is long gone, but Simmons says he's far from finished.

From some of the stories you hear, you'd think movie producers breathe fire and spit blood to get their films made. Gene Simmons figures he can do that--as leader of the extravagant rock band KISS, he's been doing exactly that as part of his stage act for nearly 30 years.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: KISS star Gene Simmons is finally tying the knot with Shannon Tweed, his girlfriend of 28 years. ( Los Angeles Times ) Chaz Bono has spoken out about the controversy his casting on "Dancing With the Stars" has stirred. ( ABCNews.com ) "The Walking Dead" will get a 90-minute Season 2 premiere. AMC also greenlighted a Kevin Smith reality show set in his comics shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. ( Los Angeles Times )

In Tuesday's Season 6 premiere of A&E's "Gene Simmons Family Jewels," an ongoing argument between the Kiss rocker and his longtime partner, Shannon Tweed, resurfaced, ending with her walking out the door with packed bags. In your season premiere, you and Shannon have a tense discussion about your faithfulness, or rather lack thereof. Every relationship has one of those discussions, what can I say? I worship the ground she walks on. We have two kids who are by most estimates the most charming — certainly in Hollywood — most well behaved, well-liked young people.