As it is a slow news day, I was browsing the
Huffington Post when I came across
this article on one of Detroit's all-time favorite bands, KISS. The Associated Press is reporting that Gene Simmons is the subject of a lawsuit involving a documentary, in which a former girlfriend's photo appears.
A woman who claims to be a former girlfriend of KISS rocker Gene Simmons can proceed with a defamation lawsuit in which she says he made her sound like a "sex-addicted nymphomaniac" during a VH1 television show, a judge has ruled.
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Ward's papers say that because a photo of her with Simmons -though her name is never mentioned - was shown during remarks about his sexual adventures, she was in effect portrayed as "wild" and "unchaste."
Richter let stand Ward's two claims that she was depicted as unchaste or promiscuous during the documentary, even though Ward admitted she was in a "romantic" relationship with Simmons.
Social mores regarding sex between unmarried persons have changed, the judge said, but the law still says that calling a woman unchaste is defamation.
Wow, does that include married women? Anyway, here is what I thought to be the money quote of the article.
Ward said in her lawsuit, filed in January, that photos of her appeared 11 times during the report on KISS, which was shown on the network several times in July and August. In it, Simmons claimed to have had sexual encounters with 4,600 women.
4,600??? Where does he find the time to rehearse?? But the serious part of this article begs the question. In an era in which men and women are free to chose their lives and personal fulfillment without the stigma of shame, is it proper to keep such laws on the books?