In Defense of Courtney Love
On Friday, Page Six ran an item on our recent interview with Courtney Love and focused on her purported "anti-Semitic ravings." The evidence? A line half-way through the 5,550 word piece in which she states:
"Every time you buy a Nirvana record, part of that money is not going to Kurt’s child, or to me, it’s going to a handful of Jew loan officers, Jew private banks, it’s going to lawyers who are also bankers . . ."
Page Six, to its credit, makes mention of the fact that Ms. Love also explores her Jewish heritage in the interview—to be sure, these are not "anti-Semitic ravings" of the Mel Gibson variety. Unfortunately, it seemed not to matter too much to the editors of Page Six that the remarks made by this woman of Jewish background were being made in the context of a Jewish conversation in a Jewish magazine. Like it or not—and over the seven years we’ve been publishing Heeb we’ve found that many do not, but the simple fact remains:
This is how Jews talk to Jews.
I’m not naive. This is Page Six here. I don’t want to remove their item from its context the same way I’m complaining that they’re removing our feature from its context. Page Six is a place to revel in that exquisite mix of schadenfreude and the sensational—it is its bread and butter and its readers understand that. Hell, I’m a fan of Page Six and I don’t want it waxing on the construction of the contemporary rock icon and how femininity gets connected with sickness and hysteria as it enters the pop limelight.
But the fact remains, that since our Winter Issue hit newsstands last month, we’ve been told time and time again (not just by my parents) that our interview with Ms. Love was the most flattering portrait of her ever painted—that she never seemed so likeable, so sympathetic. That’s why it’s disturbing to see the interview being used to cast her yet again as a mad woman.
Maybe I’m wrong. Read the interview in its entirety and see if you hear the ravings of intolerance. Certainly, Ms. Love is opinionated, paradoxical, outspoken, candid, and even sometimes infuriating. But that’s why we love her.
comments
submit a comment01.16.09 at 3:01 pm
I’m Jewish, and about a third of my friends are Jewish. Generally speaking, we do not talk to each other in that way. We occasionally crack an off-color joke where we’ll say “Wow, what a Jew” when a friend asks for loaned money to be returned, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Jew use the words “Jew loan officers,” “Jew bankers,” “Jew lawyers,” etc. Regardless, it’s kind of a moot point, because Courtney Love is only 1/4 Jewish. Frankly, she doesn’t have the right to be in on the joke.
Also, how was this interview a flattering portrait? There were two times that I wanted to literally reach through my computer screen and smack her:
“Am I too famous to live in the West Village?”
“I mean, I don’t know if you remember this, but you kind of have to live under a rock not to know that they kind of took me to Bellevue.”
I’m pretty embarassingly knowledgeable when it comes to pop culture, but I had no idea she got taken to Bellevue, because, like most of the civilized world, I don’t give a shit about Courtney Love. Her assumption that everyone does give a shit about the daily goings on in her life is fucking obnoxious.
01.16.09 at 3:01 pm
Regardless, it’s kind of a moot point, because Courtney Love is only 1/4 Jewish. Frankly, she doesn’t have the right to be in on the joke.
No, your figures are way off. The cutoff on these issues strictly follows eligibility laws for Native American rights, which is 1/32nd.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/213094-1-32-native-american-aa-nonsense.html
I hate it when people pull bogus parameters out of their ass like that. Really burns me up. 1/32nd people! Love is well within her ancestral rights to make such comments.
01.16.09 at 4:01 pm
who the shit cares how jewish she is? does it actually offend you? i mean really? i’m jewish and i laughed. c’mon guys, it’s courtney love. I’m surprised she can compose coherent sentences much less formulate a legitimately bigotted statement. Do you think she has mean intentions? shes like a fucking Qassar rocket…poorly shot and landing in a pile of rubbish. Get over it and go bother some one who is deservedly antisemitic, like Bram Stoker.
01.17.09 at 5:01 am
...I gotta say, thanks to Courtney Love, I discovered this site. She is such a wacked out mess, she is like the American Amy Whinehouse, without the successful dead husband. If you have ever read her blog posts, which via Perez Hilton, I have, she cant barely vomit out words that are meaningful. Just the fact that she knows what a loan officer is, speaks volumes about her intelligence. Being the only jewish person in my group of friends, I started out being offended by what she said, but then I realized that I do say stuff like that to my family members. I kind of take pride in the fact that whenever I speak “badly” about jews, its always because they are successful, which makes me feel good about my tribe. She probably ment what she said in that funny “Oh Jews run the industy/financial world” way, in which when jews say it, it becomes a positive. That or shes just a drunk, cracked out burlap sack of a woman who is really pissed at the jews for comercializing a band that has made her rich and the song book very valuable.
p.s. after going through the site, I have to say that I find everything humorous, and enjoyable. It really does say alot about jewish people and our similarities in what we find funny.
01.17.09 at 8:01 am
I think it’s more likely that she’s just a pathetically past her prime has been no-talent with a famous ex husband who’s too cracked out to go and sit on the warmer bench with Pamela Anderson and Suzanne Somers where she belongs.
Poxy trollop :P
01.19.09 at 12:01 am
I don’t know what Courtney’s complaining about, the ‘Jew’ that helped create Nirvana never received a penny… Quid Pro Quo?
01.19.09 at 11:01 am
The use of “Jew” as an adjective is generally antisemitic. The belief that Jews control fields like law and banking is classic antisemitism. (There actually are a lot of WASPs in those fields. And note it was the Jewish firms, Bear Sterns and Lehman, that went down in the crisis, not the WASP ones like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.) There may be Jews who are antisemitic, Karl Marx being a famous example.
I recall in “Spinal Tap” the manager talks about “the Jews” in a similar way. Of course, he probably was meant to be a jerk.
01.19.09 at 4:01 pm
I recall in “Spinal Tap” the manager talks about “the Jews” in a similar way.
No, he talked about “The local Hebrews.”
There actually are a lot of WASPs in those fields. And note it was the Jewish firms, Bear Sterns and Lehman, that went down in the crisis, not the WASP ones like JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley.
Those WASP firms do appear to be better run, yes.
01.20.09 at 2:01 pm
Courtney Love may or may not be heavy Jewish but she sure acted like one when she latched her filthy hands on that sweet man-Kurt Cobain-and sought to siphon all his money and keep him plied with heroin. When he was sick of it all and wanted out-he wanted to PAINT-and not be a rock’n‘roller anymore-she wouldn’t hear of it! And you know what happened next! This she-devil now CANNOT finish her latest rock album because of hauntings in the music studio-I wander who might wish the merry NIRVANA widow ill will? (I’m Jewish-so I can talk this way.)
01.20.09 at 3:01 pm
Check out the context “. .. Jew loan officers,” “Jew private banks…”
Then
“I asked my shrink about this.”
Why would Ms. Love discuss this in her therepy session?? ( It’s not intolerance.)
An introspective, intelligent yet vulnerable woman, it looks like maybe she is just trying her best to make some sense of her Jewish heritage .
01.20.09 at 8:01 pm
watch out, lots of this kind of talk with the Madoff scam.
01.21.09 at 4:01 am
As Candy C’s (is that your porn name?) contribution to Vapid Ho week proves, any level of vile anti-semitism can be masqueraded as ‘tongue in cheek’ if one claims a Jewish ancestor.
This situation reminds me of the furore (in the US) over the Obama “terrorist fist-jab” cover of the New Yorker, it’s not unreasonable to, based on the readership’s familiarity with the artists style and on an estimation that the audience is not completely witless, to make the occasional ironic joke playing on societies fears and prejudices, but in this day and age no magazine is an island and people need to realise their comments etc will be broadcast to a much wider audience that may lack the ability (or the will) to read between the lines.
Blah blah blah something about gays.
01.23.09 at 1:01 am
courtney sucked my dick once.it wasnt half bad
01.30.09 at 7:01 am
I’d let her suck my dick if it would only shut her the hell up :P