Frances Bean Cobain is a rare breed of celebrity spawn. She mostly keeps to herself and lives a recluse-type life. She’s a bit spoiled and is a trust fund kid, but I give her a huge pass because …. Courtney Love. Frances seems remarkably well adjusted for someone who grew up with Courtney as her mother. Frances rarely gets papped, which is why the photos I’m using are from 2012 (with one vintage bonus shot).
Francis is part of the Coachella crowd, so she’s not perfect, but she’s so low key. She tweets a lot about Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, which seems about right for her age group. She occasionally gets fed up with young starlets like Kendall Jenner, whom Frances labelled “a f*ing idiot and self involved.”
Frances took to Twitter again on a new rant, but this time, it’s personal. Lana Del Rey has been promoting her new album, Ultraviolence, and she’s been invoking the memory of Kurt Cobain. Lana considers Kurt a hero, and she’s been talking about how she wishes she was dead already. Frances can’t take it anymore:
@LanaDelRey the death of young musicians isn't something to romanticize (cont)
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
@LanaDelRey I'll never know my father because he died young & it becomes a desirable feat because ppl like u think it's "cool"(cont)
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
I'm not attacking anyone. I have no animosity towards Lana, I was just trying to put things in perspective from personal experience.
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
Is this a case of Frances having a point, or should she STFU and let Lana run her mouth? Frances sometimes pops off on people without thinking, but this topic is one where she has room to talk. Frances knows the pain of not knowing her dad, and she knows there is nothing at all glamourous about death.
Lana herself is said to be very upset that the Guardian even printed her quotes. Lana doesn’t says she was misquoted, but she accuses the journo of “hiding sinister ambitions and angles.” Lana also says she didn’t want to do an interview with the Guardian at all, and she felt all of the questions were “leading.” Um, what?
Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News, Nylon, Fame/Flynet & WENN
On this one, I give her a pass, she’s right to comment, considering her loss.
As for Lana … she needs to be quiet and go away, now.
Absolutely! She is providing important perspective on the situation–the people left behind. If I were KC’s daughter, and he left me to be raised by CL alone, trust fund or no trust fund, I would be mad at him too. This rant is about 10 years overdue, IMO, and the fact that she only made it to counter Lana’s careless comments speaks volumes about her.
Girl was 16 to Lana’s 27. Give Frances a break.
+ 1 —- Frances has a right to comment given her history.
In fact, her commenting might help prevent someone who is too young and impressionable from contemplating self-destruction due to the thoughtless promotion-circuit comments of LDR.
“As for Lana … she needs to be quiet and go away, now. ”
But not, you know, go away go away.
And Frances absolutely has a right to comment. She’s had an enormous loss brought on her as a result people romanticizing self-destruction and glamorizing death.
ha ha yes, not “go away go away …” just to go away …
Frances is absolutely right to “call her out”.
I love Lana’s music but she’s been grating on my last nerve. Ultraviolence is a good album (a bit same-y overall) but the lyrics… jeez. The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis was totally right in his review: “Great songs about awful, boring people”. And that spat with fellow Guardian journo Tim Jonze is just ridiculous. She even identified the wrong guy as the interviewer. And he then posted audio tape of her saying the ridiculous things she says. Dimwit.
I like her music too, but I absolutely hate it when I like music from celebritys who are dumb. And she is.
I used to think she just played dumb. Or was so nervous when interviewed that she ended up talking nonsense (I thought the same thing about Sam Smith when I saw him being interviewed on tv recently. But in a later radio interview he sounded fairly smart and explained that he gets really nervous when appearing on tv.). But now I’m not so sure anymore.
In the same boat, love her music but she is just a pain. I haven’t heard all of the new album yet. I get the impression with her that she idolizes the sort of Bret Easton Ellis-y L.A. nihilism, it just infuses her music, videos, everything. The whole Valley of the Dolls Barbie in the desert thing is fine to a point but it sounds like she’s sort of internalized it too much. I don’t romanticize artists who die young in any way, I worshipped Elliott Smith and was devastated by his death in the same way that others were by Kurt Cobain, Amy WInehouse, etc. They didn’t die for some divine reason, they died because of tragedy, because of lack of love or self worth or whatever it is that drives them. It infuriates me that anyone could think their deaths made them better or cooler but it is the way, you see kids with Kurt Cobain shirts who weren’t even born when he died. In real life, no, it’s not on, but in terms of glamourizing art, seemingly impossible not to. It’s kind of Lana’s schtick, and it’s not like she’s alone in it. I think most people have the sense not to take it too seriously, but Frances has every right to say it’s not cool in her experience when someone is talking crap about something they don’t know from experience.
Team Frances. Good for you for calling that cr*p out.
+1
+1
Ok, +2
=4
+1 – In fact, I really don’t get what defense you could make up for Lana. Those comments were stupid. Period. Full stop.
Yep. Team Frances all the way.
If anyone has the right to call out Lana del Boring, it’s someone like Frances. She knows the reality of a horrible “young death”, and that there is nothing glamorous about her mother or her dad and his horrific passing. She is spot on in what she said, and I support her statement and admire her speaking out. I find Del rey’s tactics disgusting.
+ whatever number we’re at now, Lana needs to shut up.
What she said.
YUP
+100
FBC is 100% qualified to call this emo shit out. STFU Lana.
I agree! I think Lana’s comments were stupid. She tries to come off as so edgey but just ends up looking stupid imo.
I’m normally team Frances, but barely here.
Yes she’s right to say an early death should not be glorified. Absolutely her right to let others know because of her fathers death (that has been greatly glorified) she will never know her dad. That’s where Frances can stop.
She’s still extremely self involved. If she wasn’t social media and her would have no connection.
Even worse Lana might be wrapped up in depression and pulling herself out. Frances is too involved in the thoughts and opinions of others here that she’s offering her unsolicited opinion.
Not a Lana fan by any stretch, but Frances is showing herself to be more and more exactly what she despises. A trust fund celeb spawn that is self involved and iinvlved in the lives of others via social media.
More power to Frances!
Stupid interviewers asking questions. Reporting what they hear. The next time they should not be allowed to ask any thing. Just sit in the room and stare at you for an hour. That way they can appreciate your genius.
lol 🙂
Ha! Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Lana.
Aside: I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actual f-bomb on celebitchy before!
LMAO!
Or maybe Lana could do something really innovative like learn to THINK before she speaks. It could even start a trend among her fellow celebs who also suffer from the dreaded foot in mouth syndrome.
Of course Lana was meant to say those things. What she didn’t expect was the opposite reaction and for someone like Frances to hit back. That’s why it is easier to blame the Guardian when she should just watch what she says and stop trying to be rock n roll for attention.
People forget that there are other people behind the headlines so Frances had every right to tell her to stop
The only person who actually glamorized suicide was Kurt. Nothing Lana said, in my opinion, glamorized suicide. It just made Lana sound depressed.
Wasn’t Frances making fun of another celebrity kid earlier this year? She sounds like an idiot.
Frances said it pretty calmly and respectfully, so that’s nice.
Although I’m not sure she has any more “room to talk” about death than any other person on the planet who has lost someone, which is most of us.
Lana has the right to her feelings about death, also. She has probably experienced loss like most people have.
To be fair, her loss was because her father committed suicide, which I think is a little bit different than most losses. I’m not saying one is greater than the other, but when Lana specifically points out her father as a hero, I think Francis definitely had a right to tell Lana off.
Absolutely agree…his suicide prevented Frances from knowing her father.
The problem is not talking about death. Death is part of life. It is the romanticization of death – especially early death. Death might normal, but it’s also a depressing, angsty, gut-wrenching thing (especially when it involves young people and suicide, which is what Kurt’s death was). Lana’s problem isn’t talking about death, it’s how carelessly and blithely she talks about it, like it’s romantic. Death, and especially suicide, isn’t beautiful. It destroys families and places a huge burden on the people left behind (in the counseling center I worked in, we made a habit of referring to the surviving family and friends as “victims of suicide” since they are left to deal with the results). Frances has spent basically her entire conscious life dealing with the fallout of her dad’s death. Lana might have experienced loss on some level, but she probably hasn’t dealt with it the way Frances has.
and she was raised by Courtney Love. I cannot imagine how many times the question “what if…” might have come to her mind.
What if he got clean divorce and be there for her?
What if he was there and she didn’t have to emancipate herself at 15?
But he wasn’t.
Sam I kind if see it from both perspectives.
I have romanticized death a lot, a lot a lot a lot. Maybe too much sometimes which I freely admit. Despite that, I lost my boyfriend of 7 years to suicide and man did that do a number on me (I still romanticized it and even multiple times said out loud it’s better to be dead than alive). Luckily I went and sought out help. But I really do think Lana sounds more depressed than anything. But I also understand Frances, death is so horrible especially from suicide because there’s the whole ‘they took their own life away’ aspect that isn’t there in most cases of loss.
Frances was not raised by Love. Courtney ouldn’t raise a nat. And Kurts family was beyond heavily involved in Frances life.
And what Lana did I here is misguided. Loads of celebs and magazines have completely exploited Kurt’s death so many times it’s become the norm. You don’t speak about Cobain or nirvana or the dead musicians club without him and his death. His death has become his memory. That’s 1 of the many reasons why I’m giving Lana a pass here. She’s no brain child and she’s doing what has become the norm. Paris Jackson tweeted and deleted some Cobain poems and bits about his death and finding peace. Did Frances not follow her or simply not have reception to twitter that week?
Frances has some righ to speak up here. It’s her dad after all. How she is speaking up and claiming to be the person she is just irks me. She’s showing herself to be fake and her fathers naem won’t save her.
“Paris Jackson tweeted and deleted some Cobain poems and bits about his death and finding peace. Did Frances not follow her or simply not have reception to twitter that week?”
The difference is, I think, Paris is a teenaged girl, not an adult. And Paris is also someone who has suffered the loss of talented musician father (arguably also as the result of that father’s self-destructive tendencies). Paris is dealing with the fallout of the death of someone close to her- a child victim of a tragedy she had no control of, like Frances. Lana is an adult who is romanticizing the death of someone she never knew and trying to glamorizing the idea of musicians who died young and tragically.
the Guardian posted a response article about this whole debacle, highlighting that Ms. Del Ray couldn’t even be bothered to know the name of who interviewed her. Mayhaps she should put down the spliff before her press engagements. I’m on the fence about Frances, but twitter is the place where all sorts of unnecessary crap is ‘debated’, so I’m okay with her calling out a dips*it celebrity comment wishing for death.
Someone who has a public and a lot of influence namedropped Kurt Cobain about suicide and how “cool” that was, Frances Bean has the damn right to make a statement and tell Lana to shut up.
+1,000
Team Frances. The romanticization of death, and especially suicide, is a major problem for therapists and people who actually work to prevent it.
I appreciate Frances talking about it from her perspective. When a famous person dies, some fans have a tendency to make it about them, as if the death really impacts them in a serious way. While it might be sad and depressing for fans, we need to keep perspective that the famous person probably had loved ones, a family, who are far worse off than any fans could be. As much as “the world” lost something when Kurt Cobain died, Frances is the person who probably lost the most (save for Kurt’s family, who I’ve read loved him a lot). She lost her father, and good on her for reminding people of that.
I say good on Frances. I don’t want to sound over-dramatic but Lana is effectively endorsing suicide as something glamourous. Frances has every right to tell her off because she knows the devastating consequences of her father’s choice to kill himself. There was nothing glamourous about his choice just as there was nothing glamourous about him doing heroin.
Good for Frances calling her out. Lana Del Rey deserves it for those comments.
I think Frances had every right to comment about Lana Ray’s comments about Kurt Cobain and death. She definitely romanticized death, if not suicide, with her statements. Frances lost a father because of a selfish act on his part & to hear this has to be unsettling for her. There’s nothing romantic or glorious about suicide, it’s a cowardly thing to do. Especially, if you have a child.
This +1000.
If anyone has a right to comment on this topic it’s Frances, good for her. This Lana girl is trying for a certain image, and mostly for me she comes across as a joke. Not worth Frances’ efforts, but good for her none the less.
Yeah, if someone used the most painful life experience I had every had to garner attention, you bet I’d call them out.
You go Frances! Lana just needs to STFU in regards of death. There is nothing romantic in death and suicide. F* you Lana.
“Francis is part of the Coachella crowd, so she’s not perfect” – I find this very offending
but yeah, team Frances
Nailed it!
Team Frances. But isn’t that all Lana does anyway? You know, romanticize bad shit.
I don’t like Frances, but she is right.
I can’t stand Lana. Horrible voice. No personality. So fake. She gave that ridiculous interview and now she “didn’t want to do an interview with the Guardian at all.” She said what she wanted to say, but now her publicist thinks she shouldn’t say that and she doesn’t want to lose fans. Just shut your mouth, Lana.
I agree with you on all points, but I’m also pretty sure Frances herself also did this when she had a “Suicide Sweet 16” party. Does anyone remember that? I’m pretty sure I saw it covered here on CB.
Big difference between a 16 year old dealing with some issues that were never her fault, and a grown woman just screaming for attention.
Frances is right. On another note I checked her twitter and she has plenty of photos.. which made me realize.. did she have plastic surgery or something? She looks so different now!
You made me go check, and she does look really different. In the older photo above (not the baby one, of course) she has Courtney Love’s pre-surgery face. I wonder if she just grew out of it, or it’s makeup, or she had work done? None of my business I guess but I’m curious.
Frances is absolutely right on this one. Lana is either very troubled and in need of immediate counseling and anti depressants OR she is a stupid, self-important twat who needs to STFU before she encourages young people to do something stupid and irreversible.
Nothing wrong in calling out Lana Del No Talent on her ridiculous statements.
Yeah, except for that time that Frances had a “Suicide” themed birthday party….
Just coming here to comment on that. She calls out someone she doesn’t know when she herself has been guilty of glamorising her father’s death, wrong as it may be.
team Frances. i know Lana was trying to sound dark and artsy but she seems to have forgotten that Kurt’s suicide had real consequences for real people.
I worry more about fans who are depressed. All it takes is one to latch on to that. The album doesn’t talk about death really, more about her romanticizing dark love and submission to dysfunctional relationships, a concept album. Definitely not a politically correct. I don’t know why she talked about death in the interview.. She and her boyfriend just split up a month ago because he’s in a bad place and the relationship became unhealthy for her. He always had the tendency to go dark at times I remember her saying. So she’s maybe very depressed. It’s irresponsible, though, to talk about it in such shallow terms.
I’m not entirely familiar with Lana’s body of work, though i do like a few songs, but from what I gather most of it is an act and a persona. I think her quote is romanticism of suicide/young death and was intended to add to her dark songstress persona; of course I don’t know, it’s just speculation. Maybe she really is depressed. Either way it’s scary because she has a following and in particular a young following. I struggled heavily with depression and suicidal feelings in my teens (still struggle, though only a fraction of what it once was) and it scares me to see someone as influential as Lana perpetuating the romanticized myth of suicide and young death. I think it’s great that Frances said something; Frances is the face of people affected by suicide, not to mention that Kurt’s suicide is one of the most infamous suicides in popular culture. IMO she puts a human face to the reality of suicide and to remind us that it really is forever.
The album is simply amazing and addictive. My favorite album, album of the year. Lana is screwed up but she put out the album she wanted to, a woman consumed with dysfunctional love and romanticizing it but going into the dark and disturbing parts of addictive love, a flawed human being. How much is true and how much her imagination takes over you never know, probably half and half, based on truth and then spun into this hazy, dreamy album, with guitars peppered throughout, but she put out an album unlike anything out there and it is a an album that demands listening to beginning to end, not a singles album. It’s the only way to listen to it and it just gets better and better, each time noticing different layers to it.
. I am addicted to it. It’s perfect at 11 songs, but I bought the Target with three bonus tracks and one special bonus track only at Target and it’s worth it. Some good songs on the bonus part. Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys produced it and they really produced a great sound. Many fans are mad that she didn’t come back with the edgier sound of her other music, but several listens in and they change their mind. It is like a concept album but it works.
My friend called me all mad, why did I tell her to get this album. It sucks. I said to play it three more times with headphones over a week and get back to me. She called me today and said, “It’s stunning.”
I agree Jayna. This is probably my favorite album of the year. I just love listening to it from start to finish and to be honest, there isn’t a lot of ‘death’ talk in it just as you said, glamourizing dark love and submission (which I totally related to because I was in an unhealthy relationship for a while with an unhealthy person who I loved dearly but it ended very tragically – he committed suicide). But I know some people say she’s fake and whatnot, but I’ve listened to old school Lana before she became ‘Lana’ and she glamourized death a lot more in her early days singing… so… *shrugs*
Lana definitely promotes an image to her music – JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER MUSICIAN OUT THERE. I can also see how her comments were a bit misconstrued BUT I can also see Frances’ point. Ultimately Frances makes a good point and I can’t fault her for it. The thing with her is that she pipes up when she wants to make a point and she’s always right. But she did have a suicide themed birthday party… so she ain’t the only voice on the matter. Chatter away Lana, I love your music anyway.
Frances is wise beyond her years. That’s all.
With or without her parentage Frances is just a badass young woman with so much potential, and the best thing is that she seems too smart to piss it all away for whatever reason. Not only that but I get the impression that she is a very kind and genuine person – (and she’s a wino witchy cat lady, be still my beating heart!).
Good for Frances for speaking up about this.
Lana is in the public eye and whether she likes it or not, she’s a role model to some people. It’s dangerous to speak fondly of death the way she did, especially when she has a large teen fanbase.
I love her music but I can’t bare her as a person there is nothing more annoying than a vapid person trying to come across intellectual. Death isn’t romantic neither is abusive relationships. On a side note does anyone else find that picture of Kurt Cobain a little heart breaking he looks so unwell.
I love Lana’s music. Her thoughts on death…meh. I don’t think it’s a huge deal honestly. She has an image, her image is a bit dark and dreary and depressing. I didn’t think much of her quotes. I like Frances a lot, huge fan of her father. But did she not have a suicide themed birthday party a few years back? So, is it just because suicide personally affected her somehow she is the only allowed to talk about it or in her case, almost make fun of it?
I totally agree with Cobain.
I think Frances is spot on actually. It’s one thing if Lana’s actually depressed, its another if she’s selling that image to make a few bucks.
I’m glad she said something. I lost a brother to suicide. Sharing how hard that was has helped a handful of people I know realize how much it hurts, and that their families and friends are not better off without them.
LDR sounds seriously depressed, and I hope she is getting help.
Wow. Look at all those paps fawning over Lana. What a desperate and pathetic occupation.
Those sneaky reporters, doing tricky things like using exact quotes, and asking direct questions. The NERVE, I tell you!
How irresponsible of Lana Del Ray or whoever she is. She obviously has never researched the fact that after Kurt Cobain died (hmmm suicide or murder?). Either way, there was an astronomical amount of fan copycat suicides.
If Frances Bean had that sort of party at 16, shame on her too. But it might have also been a self-defense mechanism in regards to her fathers death.
Losing your father is awful. Simply awful.