Twitter rants cost Courtney Love €307,000

COURTNEY LOVE’S 140 character Twitter rants against a fashion designer are costing her more than $430,000 (€307,000).

The singer has settled a lawsuit filed by Dawn Simorangkir, who sued the Hole frontwoman in March 2009 accusing her of making false statements about the designer and her past in a series of postings on the microblogging site Twitter and Love’s Myspace blog.

The settlement was confirmed by Simorangkir’s attorney, Bryan J Freedman. The designer’s label is called Boudoir Queen, and according to her lawsuit, she first came in contact with Love in 2008 and they met in February 2009 in Los Angeles to discuss some custom clothing.

The lawsuit contained several postings written under Love’s former Twitter account, courtneylover79, that accused Simorangkir of theft and of having a criminal background.

The widow of grunge rocker Kurt Cobain, Love has gained a reputation on the microblogging service Twitter, posting occasionally profane and sometimes nonsensical messages on a variety of topics.

The case was expected to be the first trial in which a jury decided whether a celebrity’s Twitter posts could be considered libel.

The attorney said a public statement will be issued next week, but the nearly $430,000, plus interest, that Love is required to pay, reflects the seriousness of the case. “Personally I think $430,000 is an appropriate way to say she’s sorry,” Freedman said. Love’s attorney, Michael Niborski, made no comment.

Douglas Mirell, a First Amendment attorney and partner at the firm Loeb and Loeb, said it was not surprising the case settled before reaching trial. Earlier rulings in the case had established that Simorangkir only had to prove that Love was negligent in her postings, not that she knowingly knew them to be false. That increased the designer’s likelihood of winning at trial.

Love’s attorneys had denied wrongdoing, saying it couldn’t be proven that some of the statements were false, and that others were protected speech.

Simorangkir’s lawsuit claimed Love became angry with her after she completed five outfits for the singer and sent her a bill.

“Love mounted a malicious campaign to not only terrorise Simorangkir, but to ruin and destroy her reputation and livelihood,” Freedman wrote in May 2009.