Kiss’ Gene Simmons to Produce ‘Ugly Models’ Series for Lifetime
Kiss vocalist-bassist Gene Simmons has signed on to co-produce a Lifetime series titled Ugly Models about a U.K. modeling agency that works with “character models with unique and unusual looks,” as it makes its way into the U.S. market. The show will document how the business adapts to a different market.
The agency’s motto is, “Any beauty can be airbrushed but we want to have true character.” It currently represents over 1,000 models, reportedly between the ages of 18 and 100 and sizes six and 30. Among its models are the Guinness World Record bearer for the tallest man – Sultan Kösen, who is just over eight feet tall – and a woman with 2,520 piercings. It has been in business since 1969.
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The show is not Simmons’ only endeavor into TV at the moment. Together with his bandmate Paul Stanley, Kiss‘ songwriting nucleus has teamed with AMC for a reality series about the arena football team they own, the L.A. Kiss. The show, which is titled 4th and Loud and is set to premiere in the summer, will focus on the players, coaches and, of course, its rock-star owners, as well as Kiss manager Doc McGhee. “There’s been a lot of attention to detail… so that people don’t think this is a rock band in football helmets,” Simmons said when the team started out. “This is real football.”
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Earlier this year, Kiss were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All of the original members were in attendance and, despite an acrimonious buildup in the press that led to them not performing, appeared onstage together peacefully. “To Peter [Criss, original drummer], Ace [Frehley, original lead guitarist], Gene – we are the original four, so we could not have done this if we didn’t start this together,” Stanley said in his acceptance speech. “Everything we’ve done is built on the past. We’ve got a great, great legacy.”