March 7, 2010:
According to Dresden Dolls singer Amanda Palmer. 'Given her life situation, she could be totally messed up,' Palmer reveals in a recent interview.
Frances Bean - Dresden Dolls fan
'But she actually seems like she really has her s--- together.' When Palmer learned that Frances Bean Cobain was a Dresden Dolls fan, she reached out to Cobain, who was just a toddler when her father is claimed to have committed suicide in 1994.
'I sent her an e-mail and said, 'Hey, I'm so happy you love my band. I'd love to meet you some day.' And it also turned out she was a big Neil Gaiman fan,' said Palmer, who is engaged to Gaiman, the author of books such as 'Coraline' and 'Stardust.'
Hanging out with Frances Bean...
'So Neil and I befriended her and hung out with her when we were all in the same city at the same time. I took a real shine to her.'
Frances Cobain made news this winter when she legally split from her mother and requested a restraining order, requiring Love keep her distance.
Now she's back in the press for a better reason, thanks to Palmer's latest project, Evelyn Evelyn, a concept album telling the story of two fictional conjoined twins.
Cobain was one of several people asked to lend vocals to a line in the song 'My Space,' and while her contribution was heralded as her singing debut, Palmer's partner in Evelyn Evelyn, Jason Webley, says those reports overstated what really happened.
Reports Frances Bean's singing career overstated...
'I've gotten calls from people everywhere saying, 'Hey, I saw that you recorded Frances Bean Cobain on her debut recording,'' Webley says. 'It's just not really true.
She e-mailed in a track of her singing for three seconds, and I mixed it into the song. You can't hear her voice in there.'
The Evelyn Evelyn project contains similar contributions from people like Weird Al Yankovic, Tegan and Sara and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance.
As the project progressed, Webley says, the two began calling famous friends, seeking contributions. 'The week when we first started working on this, Amanda had been on tour with Cyndi Lauper, done lunch with Henry Rollins and had run into Trent Reznor somewhere,' he says. '
I was like, 'We have to do something with this -- the fact that you hang out with all these people, you should have a little recorder handy and you should record them as you encounter them.'
The idea didn't end up working quite like that, and none of those people ended up being on it, but that's kind of where the idea came from.' Evelyn Evelyn's self-titled album is due out in late March.
Frances Bean to talk
about parents?
Meanwhile, Palmer hopes to continue her friendship with Cobain. Palmer said she would have no problem talking to Cobain about her parents.
'One of those things that may be difficult about being the kid of two celebrities is that everybody feels like they have to be very careful around you and walk on egg shells,' she said.
'Actually, nobody wants that. I'm sure she just wants to make her art, live a normal life and not have people around her acting strangely, which is what anyone would want.'
April 10, 2010:
Courtney Love will never have legal control over her daughter again!
Frances Bean Cobain was in downtown L.A. court on Friday, April 9 (just one day and 16 years after her father Kurt Cobain's body was found in greenhouse over his garage) saw the judge in her guardianship case and left with a big smile.
As reported, an L.A. County Superior Court Judge granted a request for a guardianship, wrestling parental control away from Courtney because she was considered incapable of taking proper care of her child.
The proceedings were confidential, but guardianship automatically ends when a child turns 18 -- Frances Bean turns 18 on August 18.
August 11, 2010:
Frances Bean Cobain controls the trust fund!
Courtney Love cannot keep her big mouth shut, especially when it comes to her only daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. Love actually revealed how much money the trust fund for Frances Bean Cobain rakes in – and it is nearly $500,000 per year.
"She lives in a mansion by herself. A 17-year-old getting $40,000 a month is outrageous to me, that's on top of them paying for the mansion. It's a lot of money for a normal person," said Courtney Love. Love is already estranged from her child and this blathering isn’t going to repair the damage!
Courtney Love also said the following about the disposable income: "It's enough money to kill her, if she is doing drugs," said the singer. "Enough money to be gone by the time she's 22." Is that a veiled reference to Frances Bean Cobain possibly following in her father's (or mother's) footsteps and eventually blowing the money on illicit drugs.
That is also a big statement to make about a child. Maybe this is why Frances Bean chose to live with Cobain's family instead of the woman who birthed her? Who knows. Courtney, pipe down. For your own sake.