Love Hate!  Courtney Love in Court again, copyright Victoria Mary Clarke 2004

Revenge, they say, is a dish best served cold.  This week, I have had the opportunity to witness the coming to trial of Courtney Love, a woman who was once my sworn enemy.  A woman who almost had it all, but looks to be on the verge of losing it.
          During the week, Courtney appeared in court to face charges of ‘assault and reckless endangerment’, after allegedly attacking a fan with a microphone.  Previously, she has been arrested after an altercation on board a hgplane, for allegedly attacking a woman with a bottle, and for allegedly possessing drugs.  There have been many reports, over the years of similar violent outbursts, but at no point has Courtney ever spent time in prison.
          One night in November, twelve years ago, Courtney Love assaulted me in a Los Angeles night club, and got away with it.  At the time, I had been working on an unauthorised biography of Nirvana. Pretty early on in my research, I discovered that Courtney was deeply unpopular within the Seattle music scene.  There were stories of strong arm tactics, of threats and assaults.  Calvin Johnson, one person who claimed to have been beaten up had declined to file charges, he said, for fear of intimidation.
          Courtney wasn’t pleased that I was writing a book.  And one night she and Kurt called me, to let me know where they stood on the matter.
‘If anything comes out in this book which hurts my wife, I’ll fucking hurt you!’  Kurt snarled into my answering machine.  ‘I don’t give a flying f*** if I have this recorded that I’m threatening you…’
Courtney was equally clear.
          ‘We will use every dollar we have and every bit of our power to basically f*** you up,’ she assured me.  The calls continued all that night.  The next morning, I went to the police who told me that there was nothing they could do, in spite of the fact that I was no longer safe in my own home.  So I packed my bags and moved.
          One night in December, I went to a club called Reggie’s, in LA.  Kurt and Courtney walked in.  I had been sitting on a table, when Courtney looked at me.  ‘Is that Victoria?” she asked.  And advanced on me, glass in hand. The next thing I knew was that my head was throbbing, there was liquid all over my clothes and I was on the floor, being dragged along by my hair (which was quite long at the time).  I screamed, not just with pain, but also with fear as she told me she was taking me outside. Then one very big bouncer said that he would kill her if she didn’t let go.  She let go, and was ushered outside herself.
          I wasn’t seriously injured.  I was persuaded, however to go to the police and file assault charges.  One of the girls who had witnessed the assault said ‘You can’t let her get away with this, we all know who she is and how she behaves and this has got to be stopped!”
          Within days, the police called and told me that Courtney had filed charges also, saying that I had attacked her first.  She was willing to drop the charges, if I would drop my charges against her.  I said no.  I would see her in court.
          The case came up for a preliminary hearing in February of 1993. I brought along three witnesses, Courtney brought her drummer and guitarist.  Kurt refused to testify.  My lawyer played the death threat tape.  Courtney at first denied and then admitted to being one of the voices on the tape, but continued to deny malice of intent. For her court appearance, she was demurely dressed in a suit, pearls and white high heels.
          The judge dismissed the case, after having adjourned it for a month.  The reason that my lawyer gave me, when I asked him, was that she believed Courtney and I had a prior relationship.  As evidenced by the death threat tape.  In short, she suggested that it was a cat-fight, too frivolous to waste tax-payers money on.
          At the time I was angry.  I knew that I couldn’t afford a civil suit, she had all the power and she was getting away with being a bully.  But as I look at the photographs of her now, crying after being arrested, half naked on the Letterman Show, half naked on stage, looking increasingly deranged, and as I read about how she lost custody of Frances Bean, I wonder if I am glad to see all of this happening to her. 
Yes, Courtney behaved like a complete bitch. But I am sorry that she is up in court again. Because even though she got to be ‘the girl with the most cake’ that she sang about being, Courtney is the product of an unhappy background. And even though she went from being a  stripper to being an Oscar nominated glamorous actress, she is still the bad child that was neglected and undisciplined.
The trouble is that the richer and more famous she has become, the easier it’s been for her to get away with it. AS we all know, celebrities hardly ever go to prison.  But maybe it’s time she was properly disciplined, not for the sake of revenge, but for her own sake.  Maybe the truth is that if you were disadvantaged as a child and you make yourself into a celebrity, to compensate, you only end up worse off than you ever were. Because no one will dare to put you in your place.  And sometimes you need to be put in your place, before it’s too late and somebody really gets hurt.