Etsy Designer Sues Courtney Love for Libel

From Gawker:

A fashion designer has sued wacky-mess rocker Courtney Love for libel on MySpace. Love’s response? Going on a blabby Twitter rampage and accusing Lindsay Lohan of stealing drugs.

Dawn Simorangkir, who operates the Boudoir Queen label, filed suit against Love on Thursday for “menacing and disturbing” statements she says Love made on Twitter and MySpace, seeking unspecified damages. Besides libel, the charges include invasion of privacy, infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, and intentional interference with Simorangkir’s business.

From the looks of Love’s blog posts about Simorangkir, it looks like this was a love-hate relationship. Love called her a “genius” in November for her work on Etsy, an online handicrafts site. And then MySpace user Boudoir Queen gave Love “kudos” after she praised a design with “f*&^ing ankle cuffs with fringe” as being “HOT” in December.

Things quickly soured. In January, Love posted a rambling entry on MySpace which said Simorangkir was charging “crazy money.” And then Love accused her of theft on Twitter:

“wwd. someone who will NEVER grace your pages the felonious Dawn/Boudoir Queen witnessed stealing 2 MASSIVE army bags out of the chat at 4am”

Trying to read Courtney Love’s Myspace blog entries is like daring your brain to explode, so until today I never even attempted to peruse her Twitter. In terms of lucidity, it’s about the same as her Myspace blog. Just shorter. And more frequent.

It’s sad that Simorangkir ended up in the trajectory of Love’s crazy, although it may end up doing her more good than harm. I don’t know that anyone takes Courtney Love’s spewing seriously enough for it to damage Simorangkir’s reputation (not to mention that the damning charge seemed to be stealing “army bags?”). Love undoubtedly drew a fair amount of attention to Simorangkir with her initial complimentary mentions, and now she’s a nationally known Etsy designer thanks to her lawsuit.

If you’re want to help Simorangkir pay her lawyer fees and happen to be looking for a vintage-inspired hats/accessories/lingerie, here is her Etsy store.