Meltdown!

Concern grows for Courtney Love after the troubled singer attempted to break into a house in Los Angeles and overdosed on drugs just hours later.

Los Angeles police said they arrested the 39-year-old Love just after 2 A.M. on October 2 when they found her outside the home of James Barber, her ex-boyfriend/ manager/producer. Barber, who had called 911, refused to press charges, but the LAPD detained Love, as the arresting officers suspected she was intoxicated.

After being charged with violating Safety Code 11550 (Under the Influence of a Controlled Substance), she was released on $2,500 bail at approximately 5:30 A.M. Forty minutes later, emergency services received a call from her Beverly Hills home. Love, suffering from a drug overdose, was given immediate treatment by paramedics, who then rushed her to a Century City hospital at 6:55 A.M.

Love checked herself out of the hospital several hours later. Her daughter, 11-year-old Frances Bean, was asleep at home at the time of the overdose, Love said.

Though toxicology tests were pending at press time, reports indicate that she had ingested OxyContin, a morphine derivative commonly referred to as “hillbilly heroin.” If convicted, Love faces up to a year in jail.

Her publicist, Heidi Schaeffer, says, “[Love] went to [Barber’s] house to get some CDs. When no one answered, she banged on the door and inadvertently broke a window.”

When she returned home, Schaeffer maintains, Love accidentally exceeded her prescription medication’s dosage because she could not understand the label. “When she realized what she had done,” Schaeffer says, “she became alarmed and then went to the hospital.”

In a message Love later posted on her Web site, she said, “Five words [sic], don’t fuck with a strong sedative…oh, and the controlled substance? One fucking word, Xanax!”

Love also claimed on her Web site that the house she was accused of breaking into was her own. “Two words,” she wrote. “My house.” (Barber and his ex-wife Lesley have used the home as a registered residence, but Love hasn’t.)

These incidents are the latest in a series of erratic outbursts in the last year (see timeline):In February, Love was arrested for accosting a flight attendant on a trip from New York to London aboard Virgin Atlantic Airways. Love claimed that she verbally attacked the Virgin attendant because her “dis-enabler” — the minder who was hired to keep her off drugs — was not allowed to sit with her in first class during the flight. (He had not purchased a first-class ticket.)

She later said she had hired the man to help her kick both Xanax, which she described as “completely addictive,” and Vicodin, which she called “the new LSD — Lead Singer’s Drug.”

More recently, during the August blackout, New York police were called to investigate a high-volume telephone shouting match between Love and her A&R manager. The singer was heard demanding that her record label find some way to get her out of New York.

Love is suffering from business difficulties as well. Not only has she twice postponed the release of America’s Sweetheart, her first new CD in five years (which has songs titled “Pills” and “All the Drugs in the World”), she has burned through management companies, moving from the Worldwide Entertainment Group to Sanctuary.

A source close to Love offered insight into her troubles: “She’s as addicted to the drama as she is to the drugs. That makes it hard to see the warning signs.”


Courtney Behaving Badly
It has been one hell of a year for Courtney Love…

September 21, 2002
Flashes breasts and rubs groin while hosting MTV2’s 24 Hours of Love.

December 10
TheSmokingGun.com reports that Winona Ryder’s doctor, Jules Lusman (“Dr. Feelgood”), supplied a “Ms. C.L.” with Demerol and Vicodin.

December 23
Has her anus waxed, hops in a cab naked and streaks through the streets of London for a British magazine shoot.

December 30
Allegedly throws herself on Joe Strummer’s coffin at his London funeral. (Her manager dismisses the allegation as “crap.”)

February 4
Is arrested upon landing at Heathrow Airport in London for disruptive, abusive behavior toward a flight attendant on a Virgin Atlantic flight from New York.

February 5
Strips to undies and fishnets after showing up onstage in a Donald Duck costume at Elton John’s charity fundraiser at London’s Old Vic Theatre.

February 7
Takes off her clothes to show her new underwear to friends and patrons at a pub in London — then falls to the floor.

February 20
Claims her behavior on the Virgin flight was caused by a flight attendant who wouldn’t allow her “dis-enabler,” who was hired to help her kick her Xanax and Vicodin habits, into first class.

April 10
Boasts that her performances at the Reading and Leeds festivals in England in August will be “pornographic” during a call to BBC Radio 1.

June 5
Pulls out of Reading and Leeds to finish her solo album, America’s Sweetheart, which is due out in October.

June 6
Issues a rare apology for disparaging remarks made about Salma Hayek, who was dating Edward Norton, Love’s ex-boyfriend. The comments had been leaked to the press.

July
Shaves pubic hair and wanders around nude, except for blue glitter stuck to her body, sources at a photo shoot say.

August 14
Demands that her record label rescue her with a car during New York’s blackout.

August 16
Accuses former manager Dave Lory, from Worldwide Entertainment Group, of spreading rumors that she’s on crack.

August 22
The release of Love’s solo album is pushed back to November 4.

August 27
Backs out of presenting at the MTV Video Music Awards, blaming an infection in her left foot. Rumors spread that she needs rehab.

September
Appears topless and bruised in un-retouched photos in the October issue of i-D magazine.

September 24
America’s Sweetheart release date is pushed back to February 10.

October 2
Attempts to break into ex-boyfriend’s house; arrested for being intoxicated; overdoses at her home.

October 8
Charged with being under the influence of a controlled substance.

October 21
Loses custody of her 11-year-old daughter, Frances Bean, after having a physical altercation with Kurt Cobain’s mother at a hearing in Los Angeles.