Simmons softens Muslim remark

Tokyo — Kiss bassist Gene Simmons, who sparked outrage in Australia after making comments seen as anti-Muslim, said he was speaking only of “extremists” and that his remarks were taken out of context.

“I was asked about extremists,” he said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. “And that’s what I was talking about — only extremists.”

Kiss began a five-concert tour of Japan this week.

In Australia, Simmons said of Islam: “This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it’s willing to just live in the sands of God’s armpit you’ve got another thing coming,” Simmons said during an interview on Melbourne’s 3AW radio.

Streisand ordered to pay fees

Los Angeles — Barbra Streisand must pay $177,000 in legal fees incurred by an amateur photographer who fended off a $10 million lawsuit over aerial photographs he took showing her Malibu estate.

Streisand’s lawsuit against retired software entrepreneur Kenneth Adelman claimed the photos showed details of her estate that can’t be seen from the street. She alleged they could increase a problem she already has with stalkers.

Adelman said he posted the photos as part of his scientific research on coastline conservation. He has posted more than 12,000 photos on his California Coastal Records Project Web site.

Superior Court Judge Allan J. Goodman dismissed the lawsuit in December.

Beckham on cutting edge

Boston — British soccer star David Beckham has signed a three-year marketing deal with Gillette to promote the company’s razors and blades, the Boston-based firm said.

Beckham, the 29-year-old Real Madrid midfielder, will be featured in Gillette’s worldwide consumer advertising and promotional campaigns for its grooming products. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed Thursday.

Gillette will launch ads featuring Beckham in Europe next month, and they are expected to hit the United States in July. He will be marketed as “Gillette’s stylish, well-groomed man.”

Book: Charles, father struck deal

London — Princess Diana believed her husband, Prince Charles, was given permission by his father to return to his longtime love, Camilla Parker Bowles, after five years of marriage, according to Diana’s former butler.

In excerpts published Thursday from a new chapter for his best-selling book, “A Royal Duty,” Paul Burrell says the princess felt she had been “sold to the royal family” to “produce an heir and a spare” — a reference to the couple’s two sons.

Burrell said Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, told him Charles declared during a row that his father, Prince Philip, had agreed he could return to Parker Bowles if the marriage to Diana did not work after five years.

The prince’s Clarence House office refused to comment.