Althouse: Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey — "We always seem to get rid of the good dames."

May 7, 2010

Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey — "We always seem to get rid of the good dames."

"[Courtney] Love is keen to align herself to these historical figures [who appear on the cover of her new album]. Strong, misunderstood women, all of whom met a grisly end."

Also pictured on the album cover, Courtney herself: "This picture is when I was very skinny - I'm almost six feet tall and at this point I'm about 101 lbs. No drugs, just total neuroses making this record."

6 feet tall and 101 pounds? If you say that's strong, then you will be misunderstood.

These super-skinny people who claim it just happened when they so focused on work. Such dedication to art that they forgot to eat. I've got to suspect they are lying, but if they are not... try writing the diet book about that weight-loss method.

If your suspicion is that Courtney is using drugs, this is a funny sentence: "The 45-year-old says she has been sober for 'seven years' and currently only takes prescription medications." Oh? Prescription medications? Okay? Or... grisly.

(Or, at least, gristly.)

49 comments:

Anonymous said...: 6 ft. and 101 lbs = cadaverous.; 5/7/10, 7:55 AM
Expat(ish) said...: I got dumped by a girl I really liked when I was working my way through college. I wasn't fat, but I was lifting weights and riding my bike and was "strong but chunky" as she put it. Right before she just stopped returning my calls.

Anyway, I just started working more overtime, lifting more and riding more and it seemed like all I had time to eat was rice cakes and the "nobody wants this" fruit cups from the company cafeteria. Oh, yeah, vodka too - can't drink that anymore!

In a month or two I'd gone from 225 to 190 and was ripped and lean and sunburnt. Which solved the girl (and vodka) problem.

So, yeah, I think you can lose weight when your head is somewhere else.

-XC

PS - Would *love* to see 225 again 25 years later....; 5/7/10, 8:02 AM
vet66 said...: She lacks the cache of the women she lines up with. Even Isadore Duncan would be a stretch. She tires to align her wasted talent with women who attained notoriety at the crossroads of their history.

She is none of these as she tries to bring them down to her level of self-abuse in a pathology of desperation in search of redemption. Her condition is a medical one which she appears to be losing. Like many young women in Hollywood she is relying on transient looks that long ago abandoned her.

WV: gusum - draw your own conclusion.; 5/7/10, 8:04 AM
Bob said...: "takes only prescription drugs..."

Yah. Methadone, dilaudid, Norco...; 5/7/10, 8:06 AM
KCFleming said...: The Nobody's Daughter album cover (Marie Antoinette,),
back cover (Anne Boleyn),
and broken glass slipper.; 5/7/10, 8:09 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: Vet66 mentioned Love's "wasted talent".

That's actually the working title of my next album.; 5/7/10, 8:13 AM
kjbe said...: I agree with you, Expat. Something else, obsessively in her head, was her drug of choice at that time and precipitated the extreme weight loss.

And actually, she looks pretty good compared to where she was a couple years ago - but her music seems to be suffering (review-wise).; 5/7/10, 8:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Why is anybody interested in this woman?; 5/7/10, 8:16 AM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, I can relate to that. It's possible. I can't say it's true for her, of course, but when I was growing up I could go all day without thinking about eating. Especially if I was reading a really good book. That's still pretty much true, and as a result, I've been skinny all my life. Only now, nearing 50, am I at the low end of normal for my height (5'11"). Nowadays, I don't read too many books, but if I'm working on a programming project (which requires a lot of concentration) I can work from 9 in the morning to 9 at night without hardly glancing up. A few bathroom breaks and a quick snack grab along the way and the whole day disappears. Actually, I think my recod is 9 am to 2 am the next morning - 17 hours of laser-focused fun.; 5/7/10, 8:16 AM
AllenS said...: At 63 years of age, I find myself hungry all the time. The extra pounds will come in handy when the world's economies collapse.; 5/7/10, 8:20 AM
Robert Cook said...: Years ago I was acquainted with someone whose best friend had been an indie rock musician of middling reknown and who had been married to Courtney Love before she met Kurt Cobain. Reportedly, this ex-husband of hers was terrified of her. (I never met the man himself so this is all second-hand.); 5/7/10, 8:24 AM
Robert Cook said...: Vet66, you mean "cachet."; 5/7/10, 8:24 AM
Calypso Facto said...: "Too much ass crack", Courtney says of herself in the article.

"Too much of an ass", I think more apropos.

wv: sking. Skiing on really skinny skis? Alternately, a couple sizes larger than skin-ee?; 5/7/10, 8:29 AM
KCFleming said...: For a palate-cleanser to Ms. Love, try Pomplamoose singing Mister Sandman.; 5/7/10, 8:30 AM
KCFleming said...: Hey you,
don't watch that, watch this.
This is the heavy heavy monster sound.
The nuttiest sound around!
So if you've come in off the street,
and you're begining to feel the heat,
well listen buster,
you better start to move your feet
to the rockinest rocksteady beat
of Madness!
One Step Beyond!; 5/7/10, 8:32 AM
Robert Cook said...: I can't believe I have common ground with Pogo, but I adore Pomplamoose!; 5/7/10, 8:44 AM
KCFleming said...: Well, I can't be an asshole 100% of the time, can I?; 5/7/10, 8:57 AM
Anonymous said...: 6 ft and 101 lbs? And (some of) ya'll freaked out and told me how ugly I was when I mentioned (on a Precious thread) that I was 5 ft 4 and 112? Damn.

- Lyssa (said with a smile); 5/7/10, 9:02 AM
Parker Smith said...: 6 ft and 101 lbs?

She can't use a soda straw without holding onto the sides!; 5/7/10, 9:05 AM
KCFleming said...: 5 ft 4 and 112 is ugly???

Someone was takin' crazy pills, methinks.; 5/7/10, 9:10 AM
Anonymous said...: I have never once in my life forgotten to eat. Never.; 5/7/10, 9:14 AM
ricpic said...: 5 ft tall and 112 lbs sounds perfect to me. I'm picturing 34 - 24 - 35...I'm in love. See how easy it is to please a guy?; 5/7/10, 9:24 AM
ricpic said...: Oops. Make that 5 ft 4.; 5/7/10, 9:24 AM
KCFleming said...: "See how easy it is to please a guy?"

This usually requires mere proximity.; 5/7/10, 9:26 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Courtney Love is a disaster. She was a regular fixture in emergency rooms due to her "strength" indulging in recreational drug use. She helped push Curt Cobain over the edge.; 5/7/10, 9:35 AM
ricpic said...: The appeal of the perpetually lost Courtney is that she's a marker against (compared to?) whom (which?) we can feel pretty good about ourselves.; 5/7/10, 9:42 AM
Big Mike said...: So she thinks she's too tall and wants to align herself with women who were shortened by about seven or eight inches?; 5/7/10, 9:46 AM
Richard Dolan said...: "Strong, misunderstood women, all of whom met a grisly end."

That's an odd description of Marie A, Anne B or Jane G. The three queens are remembered mostly for their grace in facing execution, a fate that resulted from how they had been reduced to pawns in a drama written and directed by others. "Strong" and "misunderstood" aren't the two words that leap to mind to describe them.

Perhaps Ms. Courtney thinks that dying well is all it takes to be remembered as a "strong, misunderstood woman." If so, trying to remain at 101 pounds on a 6-foot, 45-year old frame might hasten the dying part at least. Perhaps today being skinny (rather than emaciated from a debilitating disease) may be enough to qualify as "dying well" in some circles.

Is this what feminism has become?; 5/7/10, 10:25 AM
Lynne said...: ya'll freaked out and told me how ugly I was when I mentioned (on a Precious thread) that I was 5 ft 4 and 112? Damn.

Lyssa, I didn't know you were 5'4" and 112. What on earth is wrong with that? Sounds pretty proportional to me.
I'm 5'61/2" and was 115-120 for years.

Then I hit 43 or so and started filling out a bit. It's really weird when you suddenly develop cleavage and curves for the first time at that late age.; 5/7/10, 10:26 AM
Chip Ahoy said...: Henry's Wife-o-liminator.; 5/7/10, 10:28 AM
Trooper York said...: Courtney Love has taken to hanging around the local wine and cheese joint in my neighborhood!

I didn't catch her there because we don't close the store till later so we don't get there till about 11pm usually. But some of the regulars who met her said she seemed clean and sober and very business like.

Of course many people love to make fun of slightly addled blondes who have a reputation for enjoying a libation or two. It is the puritan in the lefty world view. Just because a person likes to party or they used to like to party doesn't make them a horrible person forever and ever.

If you don't believe me, ask LT.....oh wait a minute....nevermind.; 5/7/10, 10:45 AM
Anthony said...: I have to say, "Celebrity Skin" is still one of my favorite albums. That woman can really rock when she puts her mind to it.; 5/7/10, 10:46 AM
Trooper York said...: Several celebrity or quasi-celebrity types come to this cabaret act.

The rumor was that a famous historical personage was supposed to show up this past Wednesday but the show was cancel because there was a big Buddhist fundraising event or something.

So we missed out. But there is always next week.; 5/7/10, 10:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Lynne said Then I hit 43 or so and started filling out a bit. It's really weird when you suddenly develop cleavage and curves for the first time at that late age.

Oh, good, I'll look forward to that. I've always wanted cleavage!; 5/7/10, 11:47 AM
Lynne said...: Well, be warned: I spent a year or two actually bumping into things now and then because I wasn't used to being that deep and that wide in the bum.
As for the cleavage, well- let's just say I know someone who was even more pleased with it than me.;)
Goodness, I think I'm vering on "too much information" here.
Sorry!; 5/7/10, 11:59 AM
Chris said...: She's lying. Creating art for extended periods of time takes considerable amounts of brainpower and concentration. That has to be fueled somehow. And it's not like the brain gets to intervene and say "Oh, give me all that fuel. Sorry body, you get whatever's left." And if she really did starve herself to create her art, you'd think it at least wouldn't suck.; 5/7/10, 12:36 PM
JAL said...: OT But at the bottom of the Courtney Love article there were some teasers, including this one:

7 days quiz
What's a 1,000,000,000 trillion bytes called?

The first thing that jumped to mind was "The national debt."

(And it's hard to see what size she is in the pictures I saw. 101 lbs at 6 feet would be skeletal.); 5/7/10, 12:49 PM
Anonymous said...: 101 lbs. at 6' sounds roughly like Megan McArdle territory. I've met Megan McArdle, and she really IS skeletal, which is not to say unhealthy-looking.; 5/7/10, 1:01 PM
Joe said...: What's so great about Anne Boleyn, besides all the misinformation spewed out by The Tudors?

(Anne worked her way into marriage with the King of England. You don't do that by being a misunderstood woman, especially with someone as conniving as King Henry VIII [and with Cromwell hanging around.])

Oh, and 6 foot and 101 lbs. Shudder and eewww.; 5/7/10, 1:02 PM
MayBee said...: Courtney's more of a Becky Sharp, parenting skills and all.; 5/7/10, 1:33 PM
Ralph L said...: It looks like she had a good 5 pounds taken off her nose.

My mother was 5'9" and 105 lbs when she married in 1955. She'd been working covertly for the CIA (as a secretary) in divided Vienna and had been pretty ill from the cold winter with little heat. Because they had a three week engagement (Dad's ship was going to the Med for several months, no shotgun), she borrowed her s-i-l's dress and took the waist up 6". In photos it still looks too big on her, but my aunt was and is right buxom.

I inherited her thin frame, which is a decidedly mixed blessing when all your fat goes to your gut.; 5/7/10, 1:37 PM
knox said...: She's lying.

Yup. The thing is rife with bragging white lies that are meant to impress or (she thinks) make her sound cool.; 5/7/10, 1:43 PM
Ralph L said...: What's so great about Anne Boleyn[?]

She birfed Elizabeth I.; 5/7/10, 1:58 PM
J Lee said...: Checking the interweb thingy, most sites seems to put Ms. Love's height at between 5-9 1/2 and 5-10. Which is guess means at 101 pounds, she can afford to get down into double-digits and still maintain her favored height-to-weight ratio.; 5/7/10, 2:03 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Several things:

1) One of my best friends banged Courtney in the office of a San Francisco nightclub years ago. He's still really, really embarrassed about it.

2) Chris, I used to be notorious for forgetting to eat when I was working on art. I'd actually pass out, sometimes, before I'd remember to eat. (I could also fall asleep under the drummer's riser, while the opening bands were playing, to the amazement of all, only rising when shaken awake to wander onstage, blinkered, and throwing real anger at the crowd for disturbing my slumber.)

3) Pogo, thanks for the Madness reference: I just took them off my car's iPod because I was listening to that first album too much. Great cover, too.

4) Lyssa, I'm with the rest of the guys: forget the naysayers - you sound like you're just the way we like 'em.

5) Finally, "Live Through This" has some amazing songs on it - not all of them, but enough I'd include Courtney in the pantheon of great American rockers.; 5/7/10, 2:21 PM
Nora said...: Who is Courtney Love?; 5/7/10, 3:52 PM
Trooper York said...: Nora said...
Who is Courtney Love?

She is the product of an unholy union of Bob Love and Norm Van Lier.; 5/7/10, 4:55 PM
Trooper York said...: They pioneered in-vitro in the University of Chicago you know.; 5/7/10, 4:55 PM
Dustin said...: I guess he was right, it really is better to burn out than to fade away.; 5/7/10, 6:25 PM