Into the pop courts, and a judge has ruled that a woman can sue former Kiss frontman Gene Simmons over allegations he portrayed her as a "sex-addicted nymphomaniac" in a VH-1 documentary. The documentary in question, 'When Kiss Ruled The World', chronicled the band's 30 year career and was shown in July and August this year. It included several pictures of Simmons with his former partner Georgeann Walsh Ward, and it is her inclusion in the show that has caused the litigation.
Ward objects in particular to one sequence where Simmons says: "There wasn't a girl that was off limits, and I enjoyed every single one of them. I was a 24-hour whore. All I ever thought about was sex." The programme then cut to a photo of Simmons with Ward, and this editing, Ward's lawyers claim, portrayed their client as being "wild" and "unchaste".
Simmons' people tried to have the lawsuit dismissed but a New York court last week refused. While they said Ward did not have grounds to sue over her likeness being used without permission in the show, because such permission is not required for a documentary, Ward could pursue a case relating to implications made about her character. The judge pointed out that while public opinion on "sex between unmarried persons" may have changed over the years, to call a woman unchaste is still defamation in the eyes of US law.
Neither Simmons or Ward has so far commented on the ruling.