Kurt Cobain

"I don't want my daughter to grow up and someday be hassled by kids at school . . . I don't want people telling her that her parents were junkies." Kurt Cobain, the 25-year-old leader of the acclaimed and hugely successful rock group Nirvana, is sitting in the living room of his Hollywood Hills apartment, holding Frances, his and Courtney Love's 4-week-old baby. It's Cobain's first formal interview in almost a year, and it takes time to open up. A shy, sensitive man, he speaks easily about his daughter, but there's one thing he's uncomfortable talking about even though he knows he has to. Nirvana is the hottest new band to come along in years, and several of the articles on the group have speculated about Cobain's alleged drug use. He now admits that he's used drugs, including heroin, but never as much as has been rumored or reported in the rock press.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: Tony Bennett calls "Jersey Shore" reality stars "morons and gangsters. " ( Los Angeles Times ) Katie Holmes is joining "How I Met Your Mother" as the iconic "Slutty Pumpkin. " ( Entertainment Weekly ) Frances Bean Cobain, the only child of Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, is now a model. ( Contact Music ) Speaking of models, Tyra Banks has written a young adult novel called "Modelland," and the star says it might get made into a movie.

Amy Winehouse's tragic death at her home this weekend has left her family as well as fans all over the world mourning the loss. The soulstress, known for such hits as "Rehab," was found dead at her London home Saturday. She joins Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and others as singers who died at the age of 27. If autopsy results indicate that a drug overdose was involved, Winehouse would be far from the first star to fall because of substance abuse. Often, instead of succumbing to such high-profile killers as cocaine, these celebrities died from a combination of relatively common prescription medications, such as codeine or OxyContin.

Richards' book rocks Keith Richards has gone platinum as an author. The Rolling Stone's memoir, "Life," has sold more than 1 million copies since coming out last fall. "Hail to the Keef!" Little, Brown and Co. publisher Michael Pietsch said in a statement Thursday, noting that "Life" was among the bestselling rock memoirs of all time. Richards, 67, received more than $7 million for his book, which received almost universal raves. —Associated Press New King chiller eschews print Stephen King is back in the e-book game.

Rock 'n' roll legend Elvis Presley ceded his crown as the top-earning dead celebrity to Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. Forbes.com said Cobain earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006. Presley wound up in the No. 2 slot with $42 million. Forbes.com bases its dollar amounts on licensing deals for using the deceased celebrities' work or image in advertising or elsewhere. This was Cobain's first time on the list. Presley has topped the list since its inception six years ago.

Kurt Cobain's words spoke to a number of young people upset about the prospect of a nothing life at nothing wages. The media have dubbed us Generation X--a generation no one knew what to do with. Whether your parents told you, you learned it in school or it's just a story you heard, we've learned a lot of things. Our parents can be together, divorced, fighting, dating or alone. Some of us have sex, use condoms, get pregnant, have abortions, have babies or get AIDS.

A lot of people do not realize how much of a role model Kurt Cobain played in the lives of so many young teens. His outstanding lyrics, which he tried so desperately to write from his heart, express pain, anger and hate from his childhood memories. These honest, humble lyrics immediately built a bond between him and his many fans alike ("In Seattle, a Mood of Teen Dispirit," April 12, Calendar). He expressed his feelings in a way his fans wish they could have, but never knew how.

Rock star Courtney Love carved out a new identity for herself this year as an artist-rights activist, ranting about greedy corporations that she claimed cheat bands out of royalties and try to steal their music. But that crusader image suffered a blow Wednesday when the remaining members of the grunge band Nirvana sued Love, accusing the widow of bandmate Kurt Cobain of trying to seize control of the trio's recordings for her own financial gain.

If you didn't "get" Kurt Cobain the first time around -- and don't feel alone, many over-30 rock fans didn't -- Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" gives you a second chance. This is the first time the band's celebrated acoustic performance on MTV is available on DVD, and it's a compelling introduction to the man who was embraced by much of his generation with an almost John Lennon-ish fervor.

There's a startling moment in "With the Lights Out," a rich trove of unreleased Nirvana tapes due out this month. It comes just before Kurt Cobain begins singing "Rape Me" -- a song so full of dark, violent imagery that MTV executives once warned him they'd switch to a commercial if he sang it on an awards show. But the surprise on this studio rehearsal tape doesn't come from lyrics such as "Hate me / Do it again and again / Waste me, taste me my friend."

Amy Winehouse's tragic death at her home this weekend has left her family as well as fans all over the world mourning the loss. The soulstress, known for such hits as "Rehab," was found dead at her London home Saturday. She joins Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and others as singers who died at the age of 27. If autopsy results indicate that a drug overdose was involved, Winehouse would be far from the first star to fall because of substance abuse. Often, instead of succumbing to such high-profile killers as cocaine, these celebrities died from a combination of relatively common prescription medications, such as codeine or OxyContin.

The man they called Black Francis sipped his morning coffee, munched on chopped fruit and chuckled at the strange odyssey of this thing called life. In the past, the singer for the Pixies was famous for sounding crazed, possessed or sinister onstage, but at this particular breakfast moment he seemed positively . . . sunny . "I guess I have this different perspective because we're in this funny place now," said the 44-year-old musician. "I have the benefit of age, the clarity of perspective and enjoyable things like success now. We play in venues that are, for the most part, sold out, we stay in nice hotels and we're applauded nightly for our greatness ."

Nirvana's performance at England's Reading Festival in summer 1992 is widely viewed as the most celebrated set in the spectacular band's brief history. Now, it's finally available on a DVD that captures Kurt Cobain at his most provocative and intense. There had been alarming rumors about the Nirvana leader circulating in the days before the Reading appearance, including one that maintained Cobain was deathly ill in a hospital after a drug overdose. So imagine the sense of drama among the crowd of 60,000 when the singer-songwriter-guitarist, looking frail in a hospital gown and massive wig, was wheeled onto the stage.

A Montreal publisher has incredible timing -- its unauthorized biography of Michael Jackson had just gone to the printer on June 24, the day before the pop singer's unexpected death. Publisher Pierre Turgeon halted the presses so author Ian Halperin could write a new ending, and the book, previously titled "Michael Jackson: Return From Exile" quickly became "Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson." "Unmasked" is likely to be one of the first posthumous Jackson biographies to hit shelves.

Can a documentary filmmaker paint a portrait of a rock star without using his subject's image or songs? Avoiding every convention of the form -- including such basics as performance footage -- AJ Schnack has done just that in "Kurt Cobain: About a Son," coming to DVD on Tuesday, the day before the late Nirvana frontman would have turned 41. In the process, he's created a work of startling intimacy. Nobody speaks in the film but Cobain himself.

If you didn't "get" Kurt Cobain the first time around -- and don't feel alone, many over-30 rock fans didn't -- Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" gives you a second chance. This is the first time the band's celebrated acoustic performance on MTV is available on DVD, and it's a compelling introduction to the man who was embraced by much of his generation with an almost John Lennon-ish fervor.

The first page of the book is an invitation. The young artist's handwriting is a relaxed scrawl framed by the modest blue lines of a spiral notebook. "When you wake up this morning, please read my diary," it says. "Look through my things and figure me out." The last page is a screed. It mocks celebrity and blunt thinking. The last sentence is about rednecks wading through fish entrails in sunless Alaska.

I understand what it is like to be an angry, depressed addict who needs so badly to be liked that he gets on stage and sweats and bleeds and hopes that people will somehow connect. But as addicts whose only real happiness is being high--whether it's on dope or music, writing, acting or painting--success becomes our worst enemy. When self-hatred runs so deep, it is never alleviated by fame or wealth.

A dozen years after his death by suicide, Kurt Cobain remains a fascinating figure. Filmmaker AJ Schnack is the latest to weigh in with the collage-like nonfiction work "Kurt Cobain About a Son." In no way an introduction to Cobain or the definitive word on the iconoclastic artist, the film will likely appeal to the type of completist who covets alternative takes of previously released songs or collections of obscure B-sides.

The juggling of multiple and often conflicting responsibilities has become an integral part of the multi-tasking life. A whole new set of issues can arise when those separate duties intersect. For AJ Schnack, the collision has come between his work as a documentary filmmaker -- his latest, "Kurt Cobain About a Son," opens today at the Nuart -- and a blog he started called All These Wonderful Things (edendale.typepad.com).