Returning to music in her adopted hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Love claims she co-founded the all-female rock band Babes in Toyland with Kat Bjelland, but this is denied by others; acrimony between Love and Bjelland led to Love’s quick exit from the band. The band’s biographer claims she stole house receipts to a Butthole Surfers concert. In 1991 Love formed her own band, Hole. The band’s debut album garnered little critical or popular attention in the U.S. but was celebrated in the influential British alternative music press. Already a star in England, Hole’s fortunes improved considerably following Love’s marriage to Cobain and the publicity following Cobain’s death. Unpopular with some Nirvana fans (comparisons to Yoko Ono were made early on and persist to this day), Love’s image was further tarnished by a 1992 article in Vanity Fair entitled “Strange Love” in which she admitted to using heroin in the early stages of pregnancy. As a result, Child Welfare Services briefly investigated the Cobains’ fitness as parents. Love claims to this day that she was misquoted, saying she had told author Lynn Hirschberg that she had stopped using it once she learned she was pregnant. Similarly to Axl Rose, she was often ridiculed in the press for her abrasive, sometimes erratic behavior, such as cursing at paparazzi and publicly harassing Cobain’s former girlfriend, folksinger Mary Lou Lord. Shortly before the release of Hole’s breakthrough album Live Through This in April 1994, Cobain committed suicide. Love read his suicide note at a televised memorial a few days later, sobbing hysterically and alternately cursing her husband as a “fucking asshole” and pleading with him to come back. Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff died of drug overdose two months later. She was replaced by Melissa Auf der Maur later that year. Love was a fashion trendsetter. In her early career, she modelled a “kinderwhore” look, which she was accused of having ripped off of Bjelland, although other sources suggest the rip-off was in fact in the opposite direction. Love stated that the look was inspired by Christina Amphlett of 1980s rock group The Divinyls, most famously in a lengthy phone message recorded and subsequently released by The Muffs, who had ironically titled their album Blonder and Blonder after a sarcastic quote by Love regarding lead singer, Kim Shattuck. Love’s style has since evolved, and she has modelled for more sophisticated designer labels. Love received considerable acclaim for her role as Larry Flynt’s wife, Althea, in Milos Forman’s 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt, opposite Woody Harrelson as Flynt. She was also praised for her supporting role in the 1998 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, which starred Jim Carrey as Kaufman. Other notable film credits include Basquiat, 200 Cigarettes, and Feeling Minnesota. |
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