Courtney Love has been making headlines again these days. In 2021, she accused Olivia Rodrigo of copying Hole's album concept. Of course, fans thought it was too petty of Love to make such a brutal claim despite the fact that Rodrigo was sued for stealing songwriting from many artists. They called Love a Karen for acting as if the distressed prom queen look wasn't originally based on the film Carrie. This isn't the first time Love has sparked controversy lately. She also made news for slamming Lily James' portrayal of Pamela Anderson in Hulu's upcoming biopic Pam & Tommy.
Many fans think that the Hole singer is simply trying to be relevant again. Unfortunately, until now people still associate Love with the death of Kurt Cobain. Throughout the years she's always been seen as the widow of the Nirvana frontman; as if she's never dated anyone else. Although she's single nowadays, Love has still had serious relationships after Cobain's passing. One was an unlikely match with Edward Norton. According to Love, he served as a "force of good" in her life. Here's what really went on in that relationship.
Updated on February 16th, 2023 by Abigail Thomas: Though the relationship between Courtney Love and Edward Norton is very much in the past, their story has resurfaced after Love went on the WTF podcast in December 2022. She made some bold claims about Norton's former co-star in Fight Club Brad Pitt. Love claimed that she had originally been cast in the role made famous by Helena Bonham Carter and that Pitt was responsible for her removal from the project. Love had supposedly rejected Pitt's plan to create a Kurt Cobain biopic with him as the Nirvana frontman. Sources close to Fight Club dispute Love's claim, saying instead that she had auditioned but was not offered the part. Regardless, Love has certainly brought her name back into center stage with the accusation.
Edward Norton Was A "Good Boyfriend" To Courtney Love
You're probably wondering where Courtney Love and Edward Norton met in the first place. Well, their paths crossed on the set of the 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt. The rockstar had just finished a successful world tour with Hole, and that acting comeback was quite a triumph as well. Love's role as Larry Flynt's wife Althea Leasure earned her a Golden Globe award nomination. She and Norton officially began dating following the release of the film.
They dated on and off from 1996 to 1999. In an Instagram story, Love was asked by a fan if she's had any good boyfriends after Cobain. She answered by sharing a photo with Norton and wrote, "Here's one." The two managed to date in private, making their relationship almost an urban legend to fans these days. "I love Edward so much," Love told Vanity Fair in 2003, "It’s not in anybody’s history book that we dated because he managed to scare the vultures off."
During that interview, The Fight Club actor was already dating Mexican actress, Salma Hayek. But Love said she couldn't see her ex marrying the Frida actress because "he can barely understand half of what she’s saying." To be fair, they didn't end up getting married and decided to part ways in 2003. The Celebrity Skin singer also revealed that she left Norton "everything" in her will. Their relationship was deeper than we thought.
Was Courtney Love Supposed To Be In Fight Club?
In December 2022, Courtney Love joined the WTF podcast to discuss some of the drama of her past. She shared a lot about her history, even talking about a collection of music she is working on and her new life living in London. Love brought up Fight Club and revealed that she was originally cast as the character Marla Singer.
Though the role eventually was given to actress Helena Bonham Carter, Love claimed she was originally cast for the part by David Fincher. However, after rejecting Brad Pitt's idea for a movie about Kurt Cobain, Love was fired from the famous project. "I wouldn't let Brad play Kurt," Love said on the podcast. "I went nuclear. I don't do Faust. Who the f*ck do you think you are?" Love said her lover at the time Edward Norton was the one to break the news of her firing.
A source associated with Fight Club told Variety a very different story, however. They claimed that Love did audition, but was never offered the part. "You cannot be fired for a job you didn't get," they said.
Courtney Love And Edward Norton Actually Got Engaged
Indeed, Love and Norton were in it for the long haul. At some point, the two got engaged. But the rock icon said she wasn't ready for it. In 2006, she expressed her regrets about that decision, saying she "should have married Norton." At that time, Love was speaking about her bad luck with men. "I left him for a bad man who stole all my money. I left Ed Norton, who was good and wonderful, for an average bad man who was in A+R. It’s upsetting," she told Breaking News. The actor helped Love with her depression after her late husband's suicide in 1994.
In 2010, Love blasted Norton on Twitter, alleging him of causing her to lose $300,000 in an investment. The Hole singer retracted the accusations a few weeks later. She tweeted that she was "wrong" and that the actor actually tripled her money. It was all a typical Courtney Love Twitter rant. Norton has never publicly said anything about the claims or anything about his relationship with the Violet singer, ever.
What's Courtney Love And Edward Norton's Relationship Like Today?
In 2010, Love sought Norton's help with her then 17-year-old daughter with Kurt Cobain, Frances Bean who filed a restraining order against her following a heated argument. The heiress to Nirvana's fortune was allegedly hysterical. Love said it started with her daughter crying on her leg asking, "Why was I born?" She said it escalated to Frances "biting and scratching" her hair. Then suddenly there were punches.
Love explained that she only grabbed Frances' arm to stop her but it left a bruise which the young Cobain took a picture of. Amidst all this, Love said Norton served as a mediator for her and her daughter. A close friend of Norton's said that the actor had a minimal part in the drama. It's hard to tell whether the ex-couple are in speaking terms these days. The American X has been married to Canadian film producer Shauna Robertson since 2012. And as usual, the actor has kept things private in his personal life.
In 2018 during the Comedy Central Roast of Bruce Willis, comedian Dom Irrera joked, "Edward Norton. Ed, you did a movie called Primal Fear. It was named after the feeling he got every time he banged Courtney Love without a condom." Yikes... But good roast. Irrera added, "Actually he dated Courtney Love, but he never became famous enough for her to have him murdered." Norton laughed with everyone else, but definitely not in a mocking way. You could tell he still has immense respect for his ex and what she's been through.