Hole's frontwoman has spent so much time in court in the past 20 years battling drug-possession charges, arguing over the rights to Nirvana music, fighting off lawsuits over unreturned jewelry, trying to recover misplaced money, and losing custody of her daughter that we wouldn't have imagined it would be Twitter -- the 140-character micro-blogging site -- that would finally bring the words "Courtney Love" and "legal precedent" together for the first time.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Love is being sued by designer Dawn Simorangkir for defamation, and the central pieces of evidence are tweets the singer posted on her old Twitter @courtneylover79 in which she accused Simorangkir of being a "drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery who lost custody of her own child and capitalized on Love's fame before stealing from her." Oh... that?
So was Courtney's rant fact or opinion? Were her online statements powerful enough to damage Simorangkir's career? Those are two of the issues that will come up at what's being heralded the first trial of its kind: a case that could set precedent for how celebrities' tweets will be considered in future legal matters.
The trial starts January 18th in Los Angeles and Love is expected to testify. One of the defense witnesses is a medical expert who will proclaim Love was sort of addicted to Twitter and not acting "subjectively malicious" because she had no idea how her missives were being received. We can only pray that the singer brings a beagle to the courthouse, like she did at her 2004 drug trial. We cannot urge you enough to check out this photo and headline, from Spin's March 2004 issue.
[Photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com]