CB and I were debating whether or not Courtney “Michelle” Love looks high on life in these photos. When we were first glancing through them, we both thought that Courtney was stoned out her mind. Now that I’m really looking, though, she might just be tired and burned out. Eh. Either/or. Anyway, Courtney was performing songs from her new album, which you can read more about here. I found it boring, but whatever.

What I do find interesting, however, is the ongoing war between Courtney and her ex-lover Billy Corgan. Apparently, Billy and Love are engaged in some kind of Twitter war, but it’s not about what you think (drugs). It’s about Courtney using/performing Billy’s songs without his permission, and after he expressly told her not to:

Grab your popcorn! Billy Corgan and Courtney Love are on a collision course, and we all have tickets to the show. Without any clear provocation, Corgan fired off a full-blown Twitter tirade yesterday, telling the Hole frontwoman to “go [somewhere] nice and live off [Kurt Cobain’s] money”.

The squabble couldn’t be happening to two nicer publicity junkies. “Have your moment,” Corgan sneered – to the baying cries of his 40,000 Twitter followers. “Burn up in the sun that laughs at [you] as equally as it appears to celebrate [you and] sleep knowing [you] have no honour.” This, about seven hours after Love complained – to a mere 28,000 followers – that she was “waiting on a man whose every whim I’ve tried to engage and take like a white hot knife to the belly”.

Corgan and Love were two of the biggest stars of 90s rock, and lovers before that. But their more recent relationship is complicated. While Corgan wrote songs for Love’s new solo album, he later tried to claw the tunes back. “It would be a real big problem [if she used those songs],” he told Rolling Stone last month. “I haven’t given my permission. I have no interest in supporting her in any way, shape or form. You can’t throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that.”

A few days later, Love said she was sorry for provoking Corgan’s ire. “We have again created beauty from the agony between us,” she wrote on Facebook, apologising for “all the thousand ways I sometimes offend you.” Unfortunately, Love still seems to be using the Smashing Pumpkin’s songs – at least judging from this week’s Twitter comments.

“My face is my face, my heart is my heart, my money is my money. Oh, and my songs are MY songs,” he announced. “If you can’t write your own songs maybe you should just be happy that you fooled someone into doing your work for you. Maybe you should go [somewhere] nice [and] live off your husband’s money, [you] know, the money he made for writing all those great songs.”

Corgan even took aim at Love’s relationship with her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, of whom she recently lost custody. “The world is aware of your lack of responsibility, as seen in the [government] taking away your parental rights. Only you could abandon such a beautiful, incredible child who is smarter than [you], cooler than [you], and better than [you]. Oops, did I say too much?”

It took hours for Love to respond, but when she did it was surprisingly restrained. “All I am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean, be mean,” she wrote. For those expecting a more fearsome counter-attack, don’t worry. We have a feeling the best is yet to come.

[From The Guardian]

Damn. This is getting serious. Sure, I’ll probably cosign everything Billy says, but I’ve got to wonder if Twitter is the best forum for this stuff? Shouldn’t some of it be done via lawyers and the court system? Shouldn’t some of it be said in private letters, phone calls and face-to-face meetings? But that would ruin the fun for all of us out here in the cheap seats, I suppose.

Courtney Love performing in New York on April 26, 2010. Credit: WENN.