Courtney Love

Biography

While some music sensations plunge into movies with fanfare, Courtney Love was as hot as hot could be on the music scene, but decided not to take the spotlighted route of Madonna and Whitney Houston, instead easing her way into the medium with independent pictures. After a handful of small roles, the lead singer of the group Hole found herself in the spotlight when Milos Forman cast her as Althea Leasure in the 1996 biopic "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (nude clips from that movie are here).

Non-headbangers may have been unaware of Love until the suicide of her husband, grunge rock king Kurt Cobain, in 1994: she seemed unable to tend to herself or their baby daughter and admitted using drugs to cope. Yet, Love was a major rock star in her own right, having formed the group Hole in 1989. In 1994, she was one of the subjects of the MTV documentary special "24 Hours in Rock 'n Roll" and in 1995 was sufficiently mainstream for Barbara Walters to proclaim her one of the "The 10 Most Fascinating People of 1995" in an ABC special.

After a troubled childhood and a career as a stripper and musician, Love gradually drifted into films and TV via the extra route (e.g., the 1985 film "Brewster's Millions"). She auditioned for the female title role in Alex Cox's "Sid and Nancy" (1986), but was cast in the smaller role of Nancy Spungen's friend Gretchen. Love also played the bitchy sexpot Velma in Cox's "Straight to Hell" (1987), a film generally considered unwatchable by most critics. She then moved away from acting back into the music scene.

Love's foul-mouthed, drugged-out and lipstick-smeared persona failed to endear her to the general public, even after she became The Widow Cobain. But her performance in "The People vs. Larry Flynt" turned peoples' heads and finally gained her a modicum of professional respect. Cast as the bisexual junkie stripper Althea Leisure over more established actresses (reportedly including Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino), Love faced additional hurdles, including weekly drug testing. Director Forman and co-star Woody Harrelson also contributed to defray the cost of insuring the novice performer. Love more than justified their faith by delivering one of the year's acclaimed performance. While some disputed the merits of the picture, nearly all praised her charismatic, sharply-detailed turn which earned her citations from the New York and Boston critics.

While that film earned her a measure of respectability as an actor, Love encountered more obstacles finding a suitable follow-up role. Many were fearful of working with her, despite her transformation from grunge goddess to Versace-clad screen icon. Love accepted a small part in the ensemble of "200 Cigarettes" (1999) before Forman came to her rescue, hiring her to essay yet another real-life personage, film editor Lynn Margulies, the last girlfriend of comic actor Andy Kaufman, in the biopic "Man on the Moon" (also 1999).

Pics

Naked movies:
The People vs Larry Flynt (1996)