Kurt & Courtney Banned From Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, has canceled the Jan. 16 premiere of Nick Broomfield's documentary Kurt And Courtney, about late Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain and his widow, Courtney Love.

According to Billboard Bulletin, a statement issued by the festival says that the film was yanked due to "unresolved legal matters between the filmmaker and others -- including uncleared music rights." However, a source confirms reports that Love, through her attorneys, had threatened to sue Sundance for defamation of character if the festival showed the film.

Broomfield, best known for his 1996 film on Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, denied the festival's claims about the music in a New York Post interview. He added that he offered to cut the songs at issue -- Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Hole's "Doll Parts" -- so that the premiere could go on.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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