"We are like cockroaches, we will never go away," says Gene Simmons of his rock band Kiss, who play themselves in the comedy Detroit Rock City, due Aug. 13. The film, about four teens making a road trip to a Kiss concert in Detroit, takes place in 1978. These days, Simmons, who will turn 50 on Aug. 25, is the proud papa of a couple of his own kids, Nicholas, 10, and Sophie, 7, with his longtime girlfriend, actress Shannon Tweed. "I go to parent-teacher conferences like any father," says Simmons, who acknowledges there are advantages to having him for a dad. "Once, every kid in class had to bring in a picture of his mom or dad doing something interesting at work," he says. "My kid brought in this thing of me spitting blood into a crowd. What other kid could top it?"
Like Tempered Steel
For two weeks beginning Aug. 16, TV viewers will get a daily double of Regis Philbin when he hosts the prime-time quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in which the grand prize is, not surprisingly, a million bucks. "Hopefully, they won't get sick of me," says the cohost of the daytime talk show Live! with Regis & Kathie Lee, adding that he isn't worried about being able to carry the extra workload. "You're talking to an iron man!" says Philbin, 67. "I'm in the best shape of my life. I've worked with Kathie Lee for 15 years. That builds stamina and endurance. A lesser man would be in his grave by now."
Lauren Behold
It took a personal plea from writer-producer David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal) to persuade Lauren Holly to return to series TV on the CBS hospital drama Chicago Hope this fall. "It's hard to say no to David," says Holly, 35, who costarred on Kelley's drama Picket Fences from 1992 to '96. "The thing that's funny is David always gives me a boy's name. I was Max on Picket Fences and now I'm Jeremy. She's a plastic surgeon. "To scrub up for her role, Holly plans to observe actual surgeries. "One of my doctor friends told me one of the hardest things to watch is an operation on someone's face," she says. "I only hope I won't interrupt with a thump as I hit the floor."
Firth Foremost
So how does British actor Colin Firth, who costars with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Malcolm McDowell in the new drama My Life So Far, feel about his career so far? "At any point in an actor's life, to have made a genuine impact is something to be cherished," says Firth, 38, who captured American audiences as Mr. Darcy in the 1996 A&E miniseries Pride and Prejudice. "But I get the jitters if too much attention is focused on me." Not that Firth is complaining. As a kid, he recalls, "I remember watching a crowd scene on television, and my mom said, 'See all those people walking up and down the street? They're actors. Do you want to do that? Because that's what most actors do. You've got two people doing dialogue in front and 200 people walking in the back.' [Being an extra] certainly wasn't my ambition."
Age of Confusion
Reliving her awkward teen years in the hit high school comedy American Pie wasn't easy for actress Natasha Lyonne. "People used to tell me I [seemed] older than my age," says Lyonne, 20, who grew up in New York City. "I could never tell if it was just because I wasn't getting along with the other kids. It seems like that would be a really easy way to console a kid if she wasn't fitting in." In fact, Lyonne admits to still having some adolescent insecurities. "I beat myself up for not being a good enough person," she says. "That's when I feel my age, because I know in a couple of years I'll have figured out all that stuff about how to just be."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
