Guilty Pleasures
By Associated Press
Kiss sells catalog, brand name and IP. Gene Simmons assures fans it is a ‘collaboration’
It’s never really the end of the road for Kiss. The hard rock quartet have sold their catalog, brand name and IP to Swedish company Pophouse Entertainment Group in a deal estimated to be over $300 million, it was announced Thursday.
This isn’t the first time Kiss has partnered with Pophouse, which was co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus. When the band’s current lineup — founders Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons as well as guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer — took the stage at the final night of their farewell tour in December at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden, they ended by revealing digitized avatars of themselves.
The cutting-edge technology was created by George Lucas’ special-effects company, Industrial Light & Magic, in partnership with Pophouse. The two companies recently teamed up for the “ABBA Voyage” show in London, in which fans could attend a full concert by the Swedish band in their heyday, as performed by their own digital avatars.
The ways in which Kiss’ avatars will be utilized has yet to be announced, but Pophouse CEO Per Sundin says fans can expect a biopic, a documentary and a Kiss experience on the horizon.
An avatar show is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2027 — but don’t expect it to look anything like “ABBA Voyage,” Sundin told the AP. And fans can expect it to kick off in North America.
Sundin says the goal of the purchase is to expose Kiss to new generations — which he believes sets Pophouse apart from other acquisitions of music catalogs.
“The record companies, the three big ones that are left, they’re doing a fantastic job, but they have so many catalogs and they can’t focus on everything,” he says. “We work together with Universal (Music Group) and Kiss, even though we will own the artists rights, and we’re doing it in conjunction with Kiss. But yes, we bought all rights, and that’s not something I’ve seen that clear before.”
“I don’t like the word acquisition,” Gene Simmons tells the AP over Zoom, assuring the band would never sell their catalog to a company they didn’t appreciate.
“Collaboration is exactly what it’s about. It would be remiss in our inferred fiduciary duty — see what I just did there? — to the thing that we created to abandon it,” he continued. “People might misunderstand and think, ‘OK, now Pophouse is doing that stuff and we’re just in Beverly Hills twiddling our thumbs.’ No, that’s not true. We’re in the trenches with them. We talk all the time. We share ideas. It’s a collaboration. Paul (Stanley) and I especially, with the band, we’ll stay committed to this. It’s our baby.”
And within that: no more live touring, for real. “We’re not going to tour again as Kiss, period,” he says. “We’re not going to go put the makeup on and go out there.”
Kiss are Pophouse’s second investment outside of Sweden: In February, Cyndi Lauper entered a partnership with the company which including the sale of the majority share of her music and a new immersive performance project she’s calling an “immersive theater piece” that transports audiences to the New York she grew up in.
The aim is to develop new ways to bring Lauper’s music to fans and younger audiences through new performances and live experiences.
“Most suits, when you tell them an idea, their eyes glaze over, they just want your greatest hits,” Lauper told the AP at the Pophouse headquarters in Stockholm in February. “But these guys are a multimedia company, they’re not looking to just buy my catalog, they want to make something new.”
Bill Clinton reflects on post-White House years in the upcoming memoir ‘Citizen’
NEW YORK | Former President Bill Clinton has a memoir coming out this fall about his years since leaving public office in 2001. “Citizen: My Life After the White House” will cover everything from the presidential campaigns of his wife, Hillary Clinton, to his views on events ranging from the Jan. 6 insurrection to the Iraq War.
Alfred A. Knopf, which published Clinton’s million-selling presidential memoir “My Life,” will release the new book Nov. 19.
“I knew as I entered this new chapter of my life that I’d keep score the way I always have: Are people better off when you quit than when you started? Do our children have a brighter future? Are we coming together instead of falling apart?” Clinton said in a statement Thursday.
“’Citizen’ is the story of my 23-plus years since leaving the White House, told largely through the stories of other people who changed my life as I tried to help change theirs, of those who supported me, including those I loved and lost, and of the mistakes I made along the way,” he said.
Knopf is calling the book “remarkably candid, and richly detailed,” offering “fascinating insight into Clinton’s life — both personal and political.”
Over the past two decades, Clinton has worked on numerous charitable causes, including AIDS treatment and relief for Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Besides “My Life,” his books have included the policy tract “Working” and a pair of bestselling thrillers co-authored by James Patterson: “The President Is Missing” and “The President’s Daughter.”
He has also been involved in various controversies, among them questions over the funding for Haiti’s rebuilding efforts and his association with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein (Clinton, who flew several times on Epstein’s private jet, has denied any awareness that Epstein was involved in sex trafficking). In 2018, the #MeToo movement revived talk of Clinton’s affair with then-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
A Knopf spokesperson declined comment on whether Clinton would write about Epstein or other controversies.
Financial terms for “Citizen” were not disclosed. Clinton was represented by Robert Barnett and Michael O’Connor of Williams & Connolly, where other clients include Hillary Clinton, former President George W. Bush and Barbra Streisand.
Plea talks ongoing for 3rd man charged in killing of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay
Prosecutors and defense lawyers are exploring the possibility of a plea deal for the last of three men charged in the 2002 killing of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, both sides said Thursday, less than six weeks after two co-defendants were convicted.
The talks just began, and it’s unclear what federal prosecutors might be willing to offer Jay Bryant, or what he might be willing to accept. Federal prosecutors and Bryant’s lawyer, César de Castro, declined to comment after court.
Both sides are due to file a written status update Aug. 5.
For now, Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall set Bryant’s trial for late next January.
Bryant, 50, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the shooting of Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell. As a DJ in Run-DMC, he crafted beats and scratches that helped rap break through to a mainstream audience in the 1980s. With hits such as “It’s Tricky” and a genre-crossing version of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” Run-DMC was the first rap group with gold and platinum albums and a video in regular rotation on MTV.
Mizell was shot in his Queens, New York, recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002, in front of witnesses who worked for him. Despite rewards and a plethora of tips, it took decades for investigators to elicit the information that finally led to the arrests of Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington in 2020 and Bryant in 2023.
Washington and Jordan were convicted in February. They had pleaded not guilty, and their lawyers had challenged key witnesses’ credibility. Some initially denied they could identify the attackers or had heard who they were but later implicated one or both of the defendants.
Both were close to Mizell: Jordan was his godson, Washington an old friend. Prosecutors said the two killed the DJ because of bad blood over a drug deal, a theory that complicated Mizell’s image as a member of a rap group known for its anti-drug advocacy.
Bryant, on the other hand, had little if any connection to the rap star. He knew someone in common with Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial, but it was unclear whether Bryant had any acquaintance with Mizell.
Bryant became part of the case after his DNA was found on a hat in the studio, according to authorities. The hat also bore material from other people — but not Washington or Jordan, according to court papers.
Bryant’s uncle testified that his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the DJ reached for a gun. No other testimony echoed that scenario, however, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell said Bryant was “involved, but he’s not the killer.”
Indeed, prosecutors don’t allege that Bryant even was in the studio, which was in a building with other businesses. Rather, prosecutors say Bryant slipped into the building and opened its back fire door so Washington and Jordan could get in without buzzing the studio.
Eoin Colfer continues Juniper Lane series with ‘Guardians of Cedar Wood’
NEW YORK | Bestselling author Eoin Colfer has a new set of adventures ready for young Juniper Lane.
Colfer’s “Guardians of Cedar Wood” is scheduled to come out in 2025, Roaring Brook Press, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, announced Thursday. It’s the second book in Colfer’s middle-grade series about Juniper Lane and a helpful reindeer who were featured in Colfer’s 2023 holiday tale, “Juniper’s Christmas.”
In “Guardians of Cedar Wood,” Juniper is now an apprentice to Santa who finds herself battling unfriendly visitors in the forest of Cedar Wood.
“The Juniper books are packed full of magic, comedy and mythological characters but at their heart they are about friendship, in this case between a girl and her partner who happens to be a reindeer,” Colfer said in a statement. “And if the reader looks past the magic, fireworks, night flights and belly laughs they will find the heart of this new story which opens up to reveal just how far Juniper will go to save someone she cares about.”
The Irish author is best known for his “Artemis Fowl” series, including such favorites as “Artemis Fowl” and “Artemis Fowl and the Arctic Incident.”
—From AP reports
