He gives a good tongue-lashing
By night, Gene Simmons goes to work wearing makeup and spitting blood in the heavy metal band Kiss.
But by day, he’s got some downright normal ideas about parenting.
Simmons, his partner, actress Shannon Tweed, and their children – 17-year-old Nick and 14-year-old Sophie – let cameras into their home for the upcoming A&E series “Gene Simmons Family Jewels.”
“Our responsibility is to protect our kids, supply the money and the structure and the love,” Simmons says. “Their job is to do well in school and behave, period. This notion of parents having to go negotiate with their children … is out of the question.”
“The kids have their priorities straight – staying sober and paying attention,” adds Tweed, Playboy’s 1982 Playmate of the Year.
Simmons says he lives by the same rules he applies to his children: “I’ve never been high, drunk, never smoked in my life.”
Admits Tweed: “Can’t say the same for me.”
Addressing the issue
In her new Oxygen network show, “Breaking Up With Shannen Doherty,” the former “Beverly Hills, 90210” star will help lovers and friends find the courage to call it off.
But when it came time to end one long-term relationship of her own, the twice-divorced Doherty needed assistance from her father:
“My dad went and got my stuff out of the house, and said, ‘That’s enough. You guys don’t belong together anymore,’ and it really helped.”
He pities them, fool
Mr. T, who has his own advice show, “I Pity the Fool,” coming to TV Land this fall, has given himself a makeover.
After witnessing the destruction from Hurricane Katrina, the former TV action star shed his signature piles of gold chains.
“As a spiritual man, I felt it would be a sin against my God for me to wear all that gold again because I spent a lot of time with the less fortunate,” he says.
It’s just her style
Naomi Campbell has been sued by yet another former employee, a young Florida woman who claims the supermodel abused her verbally and physically on three continents.
Twenty-year-old Amanda Brack, who worked for Campbell in 2005, accuses her of assault, battery, false imprisonment and infliction of emotional distress.
Campbell has been charged with assault for allegedly throwing a cell phone at one of her employees, and another assistant has made similar claims in a civil suit.
How about a spine?
British rocker Pete Doherty, the former flame of supermodel Kate Moss, says he plans to have a chemical implant put into his abdomen to help him kick drugs.
Doherty, who’s in a court-ordered rehabilitation program, told a judge he was disappointed his latest drug test was positive.
“Maybe next time ‘round,” he said.
The birthday bunch
Actor Jan-Michael Vincent is 62. Singer Linda Ronstadt is 60. Model Kim Alexis is 46. Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 45. Actress Brigitte Nielsen is 43. Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 38. Actor Scott Foley (“Felicity”) is 34. Actor Brian Austin Green (“Beverly Hills 90210”) is 33.