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Trivia
Birth name: Courtney Michelle Harrison
Date of birth: 9 July 1964
Place of birth: San Francisco,
California, USA
Nickname: CLover
Height: 5' 9½" (1.77 m)
Spouse: Kurt Cobain (24 February 1992 - 5 April 1994) (his death) 1 child,
James Moreland (1989 - 1989) (divorced).
Courtney Love was actually born Courtney Michelle Harrison, the daughter of Hank Harrison and therapist Linda Carroll (née Risi). Love's mother was born to writer Paula Fox but was given up for adoption to an Italian-American couple who raised their Jewish-born daughter Catholic.
Nightlife columnist Belissa Cohen
sued Love for "assault, battery, negligence, and intentional
infliction of emotional distress" resulting from an incident
involving Cohen's attempt to photograph Love at an LA fashion show. [28
May 1998]
The Nirvana album's name In Utero was taken from a poem written by Courtney Love.
Love was a fashion trendsetter. In her early career, she modelled a "kinderwhore" look, which she was accused of having imitated after Kat Bjelland. Love stated that the look was inspired by Christina Amphlett of 1980s rock group The Divinyls, most famously in a lengthy phone message recorded and subsequently released by The Muffs, who had ironically titled their album Blonder and Blonder after a sarcastic quote by Love regarding lead singer Kim Shattuck. Love's style has since evolved, and she has modelled for more sophisticated designer labels.
Daughter of Hank Harrison.
A fan of A Streetcar Named Desire, Love used to check into hotels under the name 'Blanche DuBois'.
Love once sang for Faith No More in 1983. She remained friends with keybordist Roddy Bottum.
Courtney is a fan of soft rock legend Stevie Nicks, and has stated she has been influenced by her, even covering Nicks' song 'Gold Dust Woman'. In fact Stevie Nicks is the second person Love mentions on her thanks list in the sleeve of 'Celebrity Skin'. Love has publicly stated that Nicks and Fleetwood Mac were an inspiration for the Californian-rock theme that she had in mind for 'Celebrity Skin'.
Has one daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, (b. 18 August 1992)
Linked romantically to Edward
Norton. [1996-1998]
Auditioned for the role of Nancy in Sid and Nancy (1986) but was given
the small role as Gretchen instead.
Love's biological grandmother is children's author Paula Fox.
Among many celebrities, Love is a yoga endorser, and started practicing the kundalini sub-discipline in 1997. Her first teacher was the jet-set-supported yogi Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, and Love's first classes were at Khalsa's sessions at The Viper Room, in Los Angeles.
Godmother of daughter Frances Bean Cobain is Drew
Barrymore.
Alex Cox gave her bit parts in her first two films (Sid & Nancy and
Straight to Hell), starting her movie career.
Has admitted to having extensive plastic surgery on her face and body.
Love suffered a miscarriage. She refused to name the father. [15 May
2001]
Her legal name since February 24, 1992 has been Courtney Michelle
Cobain, though she uses the name Courtney Love professionally.
It was announced that Love's band, 'Hole', has broken up. [May 24, 2002]
4 February 2003: arrested at Heathrow airport in London for disorderly
conduct on an aircraft flying from L.A. She was given a caution. She had
flown to London for a performance at The Old Vic Theatre
Love was very persistent in her attempts to land the role of Nancy Spungen in the film Sid and Nancy, at one point even sending director Alex Cox a rambling videotape in which she described her suitability for the part. This video often turns up online, and has been featured on various VH1 "Before They Were Rock Stars" shows.
Measurements: 35C-26-36 (after "lifting" in 1995), 34B-25-35
1/2 (implants removed 1997), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
At age 24, Love committed herself to Buddhism through Nichiren Shoshu lineage, and started chanting the mantra nam-myoho-renge-kyo allegedly for dropping out of heroin, finding a band and a husband. She stopped practicing by the time Hole was rising to fame, but returned to the religion after Kurt Cobain's death. Love, this time practicing Tibetan Buddhism, spent two weeks in Namgyal temple in Ithaca, New York and left part of her husband's ashes for making deity statues named
tsatsas.
Some time later, Love returned to Nichiren Shoshu and introduced Hole's guitar player, Eric Erlandson, to Buddhism. After shooting the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt and doing the tour of the third album of her band, she dropped out of the religion for the second time, and declared that she used to go to a Baptist church in New York
City.
But in late 2005, while in rehab, Love told journalist Jolie Lash in an interview that she is a Buddhist again and the religion is helping her to get her career back on track and overcome her drug problem
Took ballet as a child through her teens and has had extensive surgery
done on her feet (due to injuries).
Was in the early weeks of pregnancy during the filming of Trapped (2002)
but miscarried.
Courtney is said to have finished close to four years in college for majoring in English, between Portland State University, San Francisco Art Institute and Trinity College, Dublin.
Has had numerous public disputes with Madonna since early 1990s, when the entertainer's then-label, Maverick, was interested on signing Hole. In one famous incident following an MTV Video Music Awards 1995 ceremony, an apparently intoxicated Love interrupted Madonna's live interview with Kurt Loder, rambling and staggering around while Madonna and Loder appeared visibily uncomfortable. This footage has been aired many times by MTV since.
Ranked #68 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll.
Love is a rival of Inger Lorre, singer/founder of the seminal Los Angeles band, The Nymphs, who were also signed to Geffen Records in the early 90s.
October 2003: Lost custody of her daughter after her arrest in Los
Angeles on cocaine and illegal-prescription drug charges. Court
officials placed 11 year old Frances Bean into the custody of her
paternal grandmother, Wendy.
Love was a guest star (of sorts) on MTV's reality series The Osbournes, offering love advice to Jack Osbourne.
Though the band denies it, she insists she inspired the song "Crush
With Eyeliner" that appeared on the 1990s R.E.M. album
"Monster".
Was a member of the band Sugar Babylon
Released her solo album, "America's Sweetheart" in February
2004
The Nirvana song "Heart-Shaped Box" is about her.
As Kurt Cobain did in 1994, creating the design of Fender Jag-Stang, Love also had a personal line of guitars. Through Fender's low-price sub-brand Squier, she co-designed Vista
Venus, an electric guitar with shape inspired on Mercury, Stratocaster and Rickenbacker's solidbodies and which had a single and a humbucker pickups.
In an early 1999 interview, Love said about the Venus: "I wanted a guitar that sounded really warm and pop, but which required just one box to go dirty (...) And something that could also be your first band guitar. I didn't want it all teched out. I wanted it real simple, with just one pickup switch. Because I think that cultural revolutions are in the hands of guitar players". She also declared thinking "my Venus is better than the
Jag-Stang". The Squier Vista Venus model is currently discontinued.
The song "Malibu" (1998) was written specifically for Kurt
Cobain.
In 1998, Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins helped produced the album,
"Celebrity Skin".
Was engaged to Edward Norton in the late nineties. Courtney told Spin that she would have been "happier if I married Edward. I'll regret that to my dying day".
20 October 2004 - Pled guilty in a NYC court to disorderly conduct for
striking a fan, Gregory Burgett, in the head with a microphone during a
concert. She was ordered to pay $2,236 in medical expenses, to attend a
drug-treatment program, remain drug-free and commit no crimes for a
year.
Was in the process of being divorced by Kurt Cobain at the time of his
death.
11 January 2005 - An LA court ruled she could regain custody of her
daughter, Frances Bean. She lost custody to her mother-in-law in October
2003 as a result of drug charges.
10 February 2005 - An LA court gave her three years probation after she
pled no contest to attacking a woman at her ex-boyfriend/manager's
house. Although accepting the plea, she maintained she did nothing
wrong.
Beat out Angelina
Jolie for the lead role in Lovelace
According to Neil Strauss's book The Game, at some point before 2005, Courtney Love spent a good amount of time staying at the mansion called "Project Hollywood" where Pick-Up Artists such as the famous "Mystery" resided.
Dedicated Hole's My Body, The Hand Grenade CD to her late husband Kurt
Cobain and former Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff, who died of a heroin
overdose.
She wore an antique silk dress that had once belonged to actress Frances
Farmer to her wedding with Kurt Cobain.
Is a skilled ballerina and her dance abilities can be seen in "The
People VS. Larry Flynt" and in a music video for "Hole."
Love was cast to star as legendary cowgirl Texas Guinan in the story of her life, called Hello Sucker!. The film was never made.
Great-granddaughter of screenwriters Elsie Fox and Paul Hervey Fox.
According to her mother Linda Carroll, her stage name originated because
Linda called her "Courtney, love" as a child.
In 2004, Courtney has also worked with manga artists Ai Yazawa, Misaho Kujiradou and DJ Milky (pen name of Stu Levy) to create her personal series in Japan, named Princess Ai.
There was a late 80s/early 90s Olympia band named Courtney Love that existed before Love's own music career took off. The band released three records on the Kill Rock Stars record label. They named themselves after her based on the strength of her early acting roles and general persona.
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