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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)