Gene Simmons Denies Sexual Harassment Charges, Downplays Fox News Ban
Gene Simmons, the world-famous melting wax caveman mannequin who escaped from a museum*, has denied recent allegations of sexual misconduct, both verbal and physical.
For those who don’t recall, last month, Simmons was reportedly banned from Fox News for life following an off-the-air sexist outburst, which, incidentally, happened immediately after he defended the Harvey Weinsteins of the world on the air. At that time, a woman came forward and accused Simmons of groping her in 2000; shortly thereafter, two other accusers stepped forward.
Now, in a new interview with the BBC’s Hardtalk, the starch-carpeted reality show personality claims he has done nothing wrong.
Speaking about the Fox incident, Simmons said:
“Here’s how I wear my shirt. Somebody there apparently had the goods in for me and called something called The Daily Beast or something and said whatever they said I did. I did nothing. I always had people around me. Like when I come here, I’ve got handlers and everybody sees what I’m doing. You can’t go into a public area and do anything.”
He added:
“The problem is with social media today is nobody calls you and says, ‘Do you have a comment?’ So the story was printed, and, of course, everybody exploded. And Fox, you know, they’re nice people — I like them a lot — closed ranks and they’re afraid of getting sued by everybody. Nothing happened. I stand by every word.”
So Simmons is pissed because the media didn’t bother to ask him for a comment after he allegedly went on a sexist rant in private immediately after not-at-all-allegedly going on a sexist rant in public, because if they had called him for a comment, he could have denied it and presented them with a bunch of people on his payroll to corroborate his story. Never mind that he already admitted that something happened when he released a statement in which he wrote, “While I believe that what is being reported is highly exaggerated and misleading, I am sincerely sorry that I unintentionally offended members of the Fox team during my visit.” As a result of this #fakenews, Fox is afraid of being sued. Cool cool cool.
Simmons then refuted the accusations of harassment and assault:
“All of a sudden, 44 years on in a rock band, somebody’s coming up and saying, ‘This guy is a bad guy.’ It’s not true. I think the climate is horrifically bad and yet at the same time empowering to the right women. There are some really bad guys out there; I just happen not to be one of them.”
I don’t know what the fuck the fact that KISS are older than dirt has to do with anything, but along with the “all of a sudden” remark, it certainly reads like the same feeble “Why did it take the victims so long to come forward?” horse shit we hear all too often. Which kinda goes hand-in-hand with his parting advice that his accusers should “get yourself a lawyer and do due diligence.” Out of context, that seems like sound advice; in context, it sounds like “Oh yeah? Prove it.”
ANYWAY, I don’t know Gene Simmons and I’m sure he could give a flying fuck what I think. But if I was his friend, I’d sit him down and tell him, “Hey, Gene. What did you think was gonna happen after so many years of singing about lusting after teenagers and gloating about having slept with literally thousands of groupies and telling people that monogamy is unnatural for a man? I mean, did you see what you were wearing? You were asking for it. Now, if you wanna disprove these accusations, I recommend you get yourself a lawyer and do due diligence.”
*Readers under the age of thirty may not realize that Mr. Simmons was also in a band called KISS. He can also currently be seen in the role of “Lt. Yaphit” on Fox’s The Orville.
[via Metal Insider]
