Valleywag: Gene Simmons

A week we licked right up

Owen Thomas — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:00:04 PST

Don't need to wait for an invitation
You gotta live like you're on vacation
There's something sweet you can't buy with money — lick it up, lick it up
It's all you need, so believe me honey
It ain't a crime to be good to yourself
Thank you, Gene Simmons et al., for those words of wisdom. Some questioned why Valleywag, a respectable business publication, posted about the release of the Kiss bassist's sex tape online. To which the only rational response is: It's on the Internet. Lick it up.

What else did we learn this week? How to get invited to a sex party, and which ones to go to this weekend.

If it wasn't about sex, it was about cars — a natural substitute. Sergey Brin's Prius fleet proved a nonstarter, while Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster was off to the races.

And then there were all the exits. Steve Jobs's wife Laurene disappeared from Facebook. Several folks left LinkedIn. And the Yahoo layoff list just kept growing. Oh well: If you can't lick 'em, join us at Moose's.

Valleywag finally, finally dubbed "porno" site

Paul Boutin — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:00:15 PST

WebProNews writer Jason Lee Miller has no problem with Melissa Gira Grant's awesome, awesome service journalism for underserved Valley boys. But he's taken aback by that Gene Simmons video. I wondered myself: Why is it on Valleywag? "The ecosystem that the Valley, from Google on down, has built," editor Owen Thomas replied, "enabled Simmons to bypass the traditional media and promote himself directly to fans." Translation: It was on the Internet!

Gene Simmons lawyer confirms sex tape's authenticity

Owen Thomas — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:00:28 PST

When GenesSecret.com burst upon the scene on Tuesday, we questioned whether it really featured Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, or just a lookalike. The revolution of the gossip culture wrought by the Web has transformed the consumption of celebrity lives. Since Paris Hilton went exposed, we're awash in fake sex-tape videos. But Simmons's own lawyers have now confirmed that the video on GenesSecret.com is the real deal. The pantsless, T-shirt-wearing man in the video is in fact Simmons, in a cease-and-desist letter they sent to Valleywag.

The short clips we posted are newsworthy and will not be taken down. But the letter itself is informative. In it, Simmons's lawyers say that the video was filmed by Traci Anna Koval, and that a company Allied Industry bought the rights from her in 2003. Is Koval the woman in the video, referred to as "Elsa" by GenesSecret.com? Unclear. Here's the letter:

Gene Simmons sex tape leaked on Web (NSFW)

Owen Thomas — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:06:28 PST

"Watch the sex tape Gene doesn't want you to see," GenesSecret.com promises. The website purportedly hosts a NSFW sex tape of Kiss frontman Gene Simmons. Leave aside the question of whether anyone wants to see Simmons in flagrante. Does Simmons himself really object to the site? Nothing revives the Q factor of an aging rocker like a bit of scandal. Since he's no longer recording, just touring, he doesn't have a skittish label to appease. And thanks to the Internet, he doesn't have to rely on the tabloids to get his name out. Welcome to the age of DIY career makeovers. Is it really Simmons? Judge for yourself from these excerpts in which his face is most visible:

Update: Gene Simmons's lawyer has confirmed the sex tape's authenticity in a cease-and-desist letter sent to Valleywag. With Simmons's identity established, we've shortened the excerpts to the bare minimum: Simmons's face, unquestionable; the activity he's engaging in, unmentionable.