Courtney Love shocked fans when she told fans her 2004 album America's Sweetheart was one of her "life's great shames"... along with shagging Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan and smoking crack.
We've all done things we regret, and God knows lockdown has been the perfect opportunity for those awkward moments, shameful exits and soul-crushing encounters to take centre stage in our minds.
But can anyone beat Courtney Love's latest regretful revelation?
On Monday, she posted a photo of a car which had the artwork from her America's Sweetheart album sprayed on the side driving through Melbourne. It prompted her to go on a journey of her own, and she reminisced about that era of her life... telling fans that she hates the album, and that it was one of her "life's great shames"... along with shagging Alan Partridge actor Coogan.
She wrote on Instagram: "A happy Australian cruising around, Australia... 'America’s Sweetheart' having her revenge, on, Melbourne ? AMAZING! Maybe one day I won’t hate that record. It has some good songs. But like Steve Coogan, or crack, it’s one of my life’s great shames. Just the period, sloppiness, men, money, drugs, nightmare.... although Chateau Miraval (where we made it) doesn’t suck."
I've since listened back to the album and it's not actually that bad - and Mono remains an absolute banger. And the video is great, well worth a re-watch if you have forgotten it.
The news of Courtney Love and Steve Coogan's Hollywood hook-up was classic News Of The World fodder, and I remember reading it in the paper back when it was reported back in 2005.
Sadly I can't find any archives of it after the paper was shuttered in 2011 and its website taken down, but there are plenty of quotes floating around in random corners of the internet which capture the WTF-age of this story.
A few weeks after revealing the fling, the NOTW reported that Courtney was PREGNANT with Coogan's child - the article has been copy and pasted in to this forum.
The Guardian covered the story on Monday 22 July 2005, writing that Courtney told the Sunday tabloid: "Yes, I am pregnant with Steve's baby."
Female First has more quotes from the article, reporting that Courtney - then 41 - said: "I'm pregnant. I only found out 72 hours go. I've only told three people and you're the fourth. I haven't even told Steve yet.
"I've been really unslutty and really picky. I haven't been with another man for a year, which is how I know the baby is his. I'm old and this maybe my last chance to conceive another child."
She also revealed how they ended up enjoying a two-week sex marathon in a posh hotel.
Courtney crowed: "Steve is not the sort of man I usually go for. Honey, name the 20 sexiest man in the world and I've slept with them. But I was lonely at the time and he made me laugh. He was the most magical person I've met in a really long time."
Years later, Courtney would tell the Sunday Times Magazine: "That was a two-week fling and we didn't even exchange numbers at the end of it. That was my last dance with cocaine."
She allegedly told a pal that she was ashamed of the two-week fling, saying: "What does it make me look like that I have slept with Alan Partridge?" Given the A-grade stars I've dated it's embarrassing. I mean... Alan Partridge!"
In 2013, she told the Evening Standard that when she and Coogan first met and hooked up she had absolutely no idea of his Norwich-dwelling alter ego, and knew him only as Tony Wilson from 2002 film 24 Hour Party People.
She said: “All it was, was a couple of shags at the Sunset Marquis and I did not know he was Alan Partridge. I thought he was Tony Wilson in 24 Hour Party People — someone I’d always had a daddy thing for.”
“I had never seen Alan Partridge. But I was in a band with people who did know Alan Partridge, so I had to make a record with them constantly saying, ‘Back of the net!’”
The paper also reported that Coogan received £40,000 in damages from the News Of The World's publishers in 2012 after it admitted improperly obtaining information about his fling with Love.
However, Courtney said that due to money woes at that time she was unable to fight for compensation herself.
She said: “I got a letter saying I had to get legal representation in Britain and couldn’t afford to.”
