The last thing I heard about Courtney Love was she was booed off the stage when she opened for Jane's Addiction at their Hollywood Bowl date on their reunion tour. Before that, I heard that at a gig in Santa Barbara she had children smoke cigarettes on stage while her band Hole played. I do not think either of these items ended up anywhere in the mainstream press, but there was a time when everything that Courtney Love did or didn't do ended up becoming public knowledge, including, of course, albums and films.

Hole's album "Live Through This" is a very good, if not great album, far superior to their first outing produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, and "Celebrity Skin," their most recent release, had a few real high points. "Malibu" is arguably the best song they have ever put on record. Her performance as Larry Flynt's wife beside Woody Harrelson was believable.

Unfortunately, Courtney Love has received more press attention for being widowed by Kurt Cobain and for being embroiled in personal controversies than she has for her music and acting. If Courtney love got clean, aside from definitely improving the quality of her life, it would probably improve her careers, if not also her abilities as both a musician and an actress, while bettering the lives of the people her behavior still influences, such as her child's.
Her legendary addiction to mass quantities of heroin has definitely been given plenty of publicity; it makes one wonder if she quit doing dope if she would get as much publicity as she has gotten for doing it. Reinventing herself as a spokeswoman about the dangers of heroin would be a wise lifestyle choice as well as a savvy career move. And I think she has it in her.