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"About the censorship thing," Courtney Love said in an interview right before The People vs. Larry Flynt was released, "I'd like to say that you all have the right to — I used to say just tell the truth — but actually, you have a legal right to lie about me. You have a right to tell your critical opinion. You have a right to be a horrible right-wing extremist or whatever you want, and I have to honor that right — and that is me being a patriot. People have, you know, stuck cameras in my face and taken pictures of my child. I appreciate that — of course I want to punch the person that does it — but I appreciate that they can do it."
Well, that was the right answer, especially as this interview was to promote a film all about promoting freedom of speech. But when you think of a photographer sticking his lens in Courtney's face, what reaction would you expect? Certainly not a demure comment along the lines of, "It's nice to see you're enjoying your rights as an American." She'd punch him, right? At least, the Courtney we all first knew (and some of us loved) would, the kinderwhore in smudged red lipstick with an awkward nose, tangled hair, and a daughter orphaned by a dad who put a bullet through his head.
Which is why Courtney's current battle to block the documentary, Kurt and Courtney, doesn't bother me, even if it is a blatant contradiction of her claim that "you all have the right to lie about me." I miss the old Courtney, the one who screamed "Rock is dick!", the one who punched fans and then stage-dived into them, the one who read Cobain's suicide letter aloud at his memorial service and condemned his selfish act, the one who shamelessly lied to gullible reporters.
That Courtney would fight tooth and nail to prevent the airing of a documentary that features her own father accusing her of murder (Cobain's). And that's exactly what this Courtney is doing. The fight is down and dirty and un-American, for sure. But what's so upright and clean and American about giving a podium to a crazed old man trying to make a buck by slandering his daughter? "I love my daughter very, very much," Hank Harrison announced last Friday at San Francisco's Roxie Cinema (where Kurt and Courtney was about to be screened). "I also have very, very dark suspicions about what went on (with Cobain's death) because of my real experience with Courtney." Journalism? Hard-hitting documentary filmmaking? No, it's something much more fucked up when you get a woman's father to promote a documentary of her life by declaring his love for her and calling her a murderer in the same sentence.
To be fair, that's not the whole story. Kurt and Courtney director Nick Broomfield says he doesn't think Courtney murdered Kurt. "I felt like I very strongly had to argue her case," he explains. "Against her father; I argued against the private detective who's essentially accusing her of murder; I argue strongly against the conspiracy theorists. And I do this because I couldn't find hardly anyone to argue her point of view." OK, so Nick's not grammar boy, but that's not grounds for censorship these days. Maybe he didn't know what he was getting into. But now that he faces Courtney's wrath, he has no remorse — he even whined that she deserves it because of her previous threats to cut journalists' balls off. Do we have some issues, Nick?
Nick's really got nothing to complain about. Although Sundance's lawyers did bow to Courtney's lawyers by pulling his documentary at the last minute, it was screened at Slamdunk, the alternative-alternative to Sundance (Slamdance being the original alternative). And guess what? The reviews were tepid at best. But Sundance was abuzz about Kurt and Courtney. So... if it had opened without any hullaballoo at Sundance, the critics would have yawned at it, and... and nothing. No one would know that this is the message Courtney's father wants to send his daughter (and I quote from the film): "I've got her number. I got her nailed. I'm still the father, period. I don't care if you've got $177 million, I'll kick your ass. If you want to cop to me, maybe we can work something out. But until then, I'll keep kicking your ass."
I don't think Courtney should win this battle. As Courtney herself once said (in as many words), every American has a right to make a piece of crap and show it off. But I'm delighted she's fighting, and I hope Nick's balls are quivering in their Y-fronts.
What do you think of Courtney Love? Do you miss the old riot grrl? Or is she just a whiner who can't take hack it when the "free speech" gets personal? Given the chance, would you watch this documentary? Talk about it, in the Women's Zone Conference.
Emma Taylor is the editor of Tripod's Women's Zone. Her e-mail is [email protected].
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