ROCK MUSIC Love spirals downward along with her career

Experts say Kurt Cobain's widow needs extensive therapy and rehabilitation.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Courtney Love was everybody's favorite rock 'n' roll bad girl once.
Her mood swings, raunchy comments and blistering feuds were exactly what we expected from the widow of Kurt Cobain.
But lately, her exploits have spun wildly from impish and naughty into destructive and pitiable.
Love is now engulfed in a swarm of legal and emotional problems that have paralyzed her career and torn apart her family. On July 9, her 40th birthday, a bizarre call to the police wound up with a disheveled Love handcuffed to a stretcher and entering Bellevue Hospital for an involuntary 72-hour stay.
Worst time
The rekindled media attention comes at the worst possible time, says Dr. Patricia Farrell, a psychologist who specializes in anxiety disorders.
"She's been hit with a lot of life-changing circumstances," says Farrell, who hasn't been involved in Love's treatment. "It's the 10th anniversary of her husband's death, she's turning 40 and her daughter has been taken away. All of this at once is huge for anybody to try to deal with."
Gone is the confident, surgically enhanced Love who strode the red carpet at the premiere of "The People vs. Larry Flynt." In the mid-'90s, it looked like she had beaten many of her demons, but recent photos of her echo the turmoil inside.
"Physically, she looks different, like someone who's severely depressed," Farrell says. "She looks like she doesn't give a damn about herself. She's almost at the point of being hopeless."
Love's attorney, Michael Rosenstein, said that the singer was hospitalized for "a gynecological medical condition." There were reports that Love told police she'd had an abortion, while a caller to 911 said she'd had a miscarriage. But a source within Love's camp says that medical tests showed she was not pregnant.
Love was released earlier this week and is in an "undisclosed location," according to her publicist, Jill Fritzo.
Troubles worsen
Now that she's out of Bellevue, however, her troubles have only compounded.
She's facing four drug and assault cases in California, including one in which she missed her arraignment date last week, causing the judge to nearly triple her bail to $150,000. She's due back in court today for another case.
The turmoil led California authorities to revoke Love's custody of Frances Bean, her 11-year-old daughter with Cobain. She has also lost the summer tour that had been planned to promote her first solo album, the ironically titled "America's Sweetheart."
Making matters worse, Love claims that former financial advisers defrauded her out of millions of dollars. "America's Sweetheart" has been a flop so far, and her finances have been stretched to the limit.
Drug dependence
Those close to the singer are worried that her wild streak has only been inflamed by her dependence on drugs -- such as the painkiller OxyContin, which is at the center of her court cases.
When Love launched "America's Sweetheart," she promoted it with a round of bizarre appearances that found her flashing David Letterman and allegedly hitting a fan with a microphone stand. It was hard to tell if her behavior was an act or the first sign that she had finally gone out of control.
"Some people suggested that she was getting in character for a record that was coming out," says Andy Pemberton, editor in chief of Blender magazine. "She was being a rock 'n' roll star."
If it was a ploy, it backfired terribly. The fan pressed charges, and all the antics did little to stimulate sales.
"The record was a disaster and nobody bought it," Pemberton says. "If she was hoping to sell records, it didn't work. And it sort of finished her career, because now people are more interested in her as a tabloid figure than as a musician."
She needs help
Experts say intensive rehabilitation and therapy are the only things that can bring Love back from the brink, but add that help is the last thing she'll ask for.
"People like her are extraordinarily emotionally immature," according to Dr. Sheenah Hankin, a psychotherapist who says Love's behavior resembles that of a typical "borderline personality disorder."
"These people throw tantrums and don't take care of themselves at all," she adds. "When they're in a crisis, they don't seek help, they just freak out."