Gene Simmons

Leader and bassist of the band KISS, GENE SIMMONS. The band rose to prominence and popularity in the mid 1970s. They were known for their Halloweenish face paint, black-leather outfits, eight-inch platform heels and grandiose stage shows where SIMMONS spit out blood, belched fire, and stuck out his seven-inch tongue. SIMMONS has written a new autobiography, “Kiss and Make-up” (Crown Publishers) which details his early years growing up in Israel and later in Brooklyn.

One of writer-director Mike Judge's favorite themes is American stupidity. His popular animated series Beavis and Butt-Head featured two brainless 15 year-olds obsessed with MTV. His 2007 film, Idiocracy, envisions a not-so-utopian American future in which evolution has bred the intelligence out of humanity. Judge's latest comedy, Extract, now out on DVD, revisits a second favorite subject — the American workplace. Where his cult classic Office Space pitted disgruntled office employees against their incompetent bosses, Extract focuses Judge's satirical eye on management.

Writer-director Mike Judge — the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, and the director of the cult-classic workplace comedy Office Space — has a new movie out. It's another satirical look at life on the job; called Extract, it stars Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck and Kristen Wiig.