Singer-actress Courtney Love was detained Tuesday at Heathrow airport after an airline claimed she verbally abused the crew of a trans-Atlantic flight.
Love was “verbally abusive toward our cabin crew and disruptive” on a Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London, airline spokesman Paul Moore said. No one was injured on the Boeing 747, which carried 201 passengers and 20 crew.
TV channel Sky News aired pictures of Love, 38, being escorted by two officers from the plane to a police van on the runway after the flight landed about 11 a.m. She smiled at the camera and covered her face with her hand before getting into the back of the van.
London’s Metropolitan Police said a 38-year-old woman had been arrested for disruptive behavior and endangering an aircraft. She was being questioned by officers at Heathrow after reports of a passenger “being generally disruptive, using abusive language and refusing to sit down and put her belt on,” a spokesman said. Love was later released.
“She has been cautioned under the Public Order Act for causing harassment, alarm and distress to another person,” a police spokeswoman said.
Love is the widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994, and lead singer of the rock group Hole. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her part in the 1996 movie “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” in which she played the wife of the porn entrepreneur.
Love had been due to attend a fund-raising event at London’s Old Vic Theater on Wednesday along with Elton John and Kevin Spacey.
