Fans of Courtney Love will know that she's had a distinctly incoherent online presence for years -- from the Kitty Radio message board, to her mess of a blog on MySpace, plus an Etsy account and not one, but two, Twitter accounts that tend to get her into trouble.
Paper magazine caught up with the 47-year-old rock star to discuss how she deals with her online presence and Internet persona.
"I'm not a social network genius, as evidenced by being the first and only person ever to have a Twitter lawsuit" says Love when asked about her public and private Twitter accounts (her private account had been deleted at the time of publication). "At the time that lawsuit happened, I didn't even really fully get what Twitter was for or how it worked."
Love ended up having to shell out $430,000 in 2011, settling a lawsuit filed by designer Dawn Simorangkir, who sued the singer, accusing Love of making false statements about her in a series of tweets and posts on Love's MySpace blog.
If it seems as if Love is online 24/7, it's because she has help. "I have a girl who helps me with it. I can't do that by myself," she told the magazine.
But having help means sacrificing her own very distinct voice. "Sometimes she does dumb things, though. Like, if I want to work with Cobra Starship, I'll ask them. I sent her an email about what I wanted her to write back to them, but she still put something dumb like, 'Hopefully we can work together some day!' If I want to kiss some ass, I'll kiss some ass. Don't go kissing ass for me. I'm snarky -- that's part of who I am. I was like, 'Look, dude. Just pay attention. It's nuanced.'"
And although Love admitted she Googles herself at a recent talk at the Guggenheim, she backtracked, telling the magazine she doesn't do it that often.
"I make other people do it. That stuff is just so dark. My online persona is a disaster -- that's not me," she explained, adding that the top photos that show up in Google image search really bother her: "Another top photo, I swear to God, is doctored. I'm not even on drugs in that picture."
Though she refuses to shell out the cash to have her Internet persona cleaned up, she does care what certain people think of her. "Hey, listen, we all care what the New York Times does. That's the truth," she confessed. "Everyone cares what the New York Times says. The TMZ stuff, though. That isn't the media. You don't count that. Everyone has to be somewhat savvy and my friends in New York are far, far too sophisticated to care about that stuff."
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