Courtney to Get Behind the Camera

Courtney Love is making plans to direct her first feature film after reading Bye Bye Baby, a book about the Bay City Rollers by British writer Caroline Sullivan. According to Janet Billig, Love's manager and partner in Epitome Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production company, the singer was asked to review the book for the London Observer, and was so enthralled by it that the duo hurriedly optioned the rights to it.

The book chronicles teenage obsession with Scottish boy band, whose 1975 hit "Saturday Night" spawned full-blown Rollermania, with prepubescent fans sporting the tartan scarves and stalking the seemingly clean-cut rockers. But the band's tale is as dark as it is impressive: Singer Les McKeown was charged with reckless driving after hitting and killing a seventy-five-year old widow, both Eric Faulkner and Alan Longmuir attempted suicide, Tam Paton was jailed for committing indecent acts with underage teenagers, Ian Mitchell was treated for an overdose and Billy Lyall died from an AIDS-related illness in 1989.

"We're in love with the book," says Billig. "We think Caroline is so brave to write such an amazing book about the band. We're looking forward to making this movie."

JAAN UHELSZKI
(October 25, 1999)