Forbes Honors Business-Savvy Celebs at 'The Entrepreneur Behind the Icon' Event

Forbes honored Bethenny Frankel, Khloe Kardashian, Ben Silverman and Gene Simmons on June 8th, 2011 at the Forbes Celebrity 100 "The Entrepreneur Behind The Icon" event, which paid tribute to the most influential celebrity entrepreneurs and influencers.

Held at The Drai's Hollywood, the event's 350+ attendees included MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe, actress Regina King, professional basketball player Lamar Odom, actor Tyrese Gibson, television host Melissa Rivers, boxer Laila Ali, TV host Shaun Robinson, former NFL player Will McGinest, TV host Brooke Anderson, actress Kenya Moore and TV host Kevin Frazier.

Event sponsors included Steuben, Los Cabos Board of Tourism, Tanqueray, Lexus, and David Yurman. All honorees received a trip for two to celebrity hotspot Los Cabos, Mexico.

"It's been an incredible night - and year - for Forbes. With the recent redesign and European expansion, the Forbes brand has never been stronger - with 5.5 million readers and more than 18M unique monthly visitors to the site," said Kevin Gentzel, Chief Revenue Officer at Forbes Media. "With the success of last night's event, we are already discussing the next Forbes Event series: "Sports Money."

Bethenny Frankel, who was honored as the cover story of the 13th annual Forbes Celebrity 100 Issue, gushed "I want to thank Forbes magazine very much. It is legitimate, it is validating, it is so humbling to me."

On receiving the Start-up of The Year Award, Producer Ben Silverman (who accepted the honor on behalf of DumbDuMB Productions, a sponsor-driven comedy enterprise he runs with Will Arnett and Jason Bateman), said, "We are so excited to be recognized by Forbes for this great award. It is cool that they are recognizing a content company because we really believe that content is king."

Khloe Kardashian, who received the Next Gen Entrepreneur award (along with her sisters Kourtney and Kim), said, "Having our names even mentioned by Forbes is such an honor! This is one of those moments that I wish my dad was here. He was such an entrepreneur."

Gene Simmons said, "It is a privilege and honor to receive a Lifetime Achievement award from Forbes, especially since it is a business magazine." Of being a lifelong businessman, Simmons said, "If you don't pay attention to business, you're not going to be in show."

Los Cabos, located at the tip of the 1,000-mile long Baja Peninsula, is home to an array of award-winning hotels and resorts, championship golf courses, rejuvenating spas, world-class sport fishing and much more. Due to its naturally secluded location at "Land's End" and proximity to the U.S., Los Cabos has become a vacation haven for VIPs, celebrities and savvy travelers.

Forbes Media:

Forbes Media encompasses Forbes and Forbes.com, the leading business site on the Web that reaches on average more than 18 million people monthly. The company publishes Forbes and Forbes Asia, which together reach a worldwide audience of more than 6 million readers. It also publishes ForbesLife magazine, in addition to licensee editions in Africa, China, Croatia, Bulgaria, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Latvia, Middle East, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Other Forbes Media Web sites are ForbesWoman.com; RealClearPolitics.com; RealClearMarkets.com; RealClearSports.com and RealClearWorld.com. Together with Forbes.com, these sites reach on average nearly 20 million business decision makers each month.

Steve Forbes serves as Chairman and Editor in Chief. Mike Perlis is President and Chief Executive Officer. Lewis D'Vorkin is Chief Product Officer. Kevin Gentzel is Chief Revenue Officer.