October 20, 2003
Pics:
Rocky Rocker
COURTNEY LOVE:
What's Behind Her New Meltdown
Will Courtney Love derail her comeback after a night of smashing windows and overdosing on drugs?
By Kevin O'Leary
At 2:30 A.M. ON October 2, a screaming Courtney Love clawed through two screens and smashed the window panes of a lavish West Hollywood home. "She woke up the whole neighborhood," reports one shocked resident, who frequently saw Love coming and going from the mansion, which belongs to the man she had been dating since 1999, music producer Jim Barber.
According to a source at the L.A.P.D. the 39-year-old rocker was "muttering that her key didn't work." Love was arrested and charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance. By 5:30 A.M., she was out on $2,500 bail, but the long night wasn't over. Less than an hour later, a 911 call was placed from Love's own $6 million Beverly Hills home by an unknown caller, and the former Hole singer was rushed to the hospital. She had overdosed on "some kind of drug" - to use the L.A.P.D.'s words. Her rep declined to comment.
For Love, it was a disastrous turn in an already winding road of a Hollywood career. In the late '90s, she had transformed herself from a tantrum-throwing grungester and wife of Kurt Cobain into a gorgeous Versace-clad actress, nominated for a Golden Globe for The People vs. Larry Flynt.
But now, it seems her hell-raising reputation maybe have caught up with her. In fact, Love's last movie role was 2002's Trapped. "Studios are concerned with drug abuse that jeopardizes the completion of a picture," a film insider says about Love. "[But] in music, if it doesn't kill you, it sells more records."
Why Now?
Sources close to Love blame the surge in her drug use on pressure to make her upcoming album, America's Sweetheart, a hit. "She's been partying a lot and making a mess of herself," a person close to Love tells Us. "It's like she's regressed to the Courtney Love of 1991."
No surprise, as she's under the same kind of pressure now that she experienced as a rookie. In 2001, after a bitter fight with her record label, Universal, Love began writing with Linda Perry, who has penned hits for Christina Aguilera and Pink. In July, she inked a multimillion dollar, three-record deal with Virgin. Not only is this her first solo CD, but it's also her chance to prove her bankability.
But working again has meant a return to what one source who has observed the recording process calls "her rock star ways." Love - allegedly a patient in the summer of 2001 of the controversial Jules Lusman, the doctor who prescribed Winona Ryder narcotics and later lost his license to practice medicine - "likes to work through the night, and the drugs certainly help," a musician friend tells Us. "It's probably the only way she knows how to work."
So what about Frances Bean, 11, her daughter with Nirvana frontman Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994? "Frances is pretty well cared for," says Love's musician friend, "sometimes by a nanny - but Courtney does make sure she's taken care of."
As for her other Sweetheart: In late September, Virgin delayed its release from October to February for what the label calls "finishing touches." "I think [Virgin] was hoping she could clean up and promote it properly," her musician friend tells Us, "but obviously that's proven to be difficult."
Side Article:
COURTNEY's UN-MAKEOVER
Once the queen of grunge, Love became a canvas for stylists (Gianni Versace declared her his muse in 1996) and surgeons (a new nose and breast implants) alike. But her hard-won glamour now seems fleeting - an August shopping spree found her looking identical to her former self.