Courtney Love arrested at Heathrow after 'abusing crew during air rage'

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Courtney Love was arrested at Heathrow Airport yesterday following an alleged air rage incident in which she was accused of abusing cabin crew.

The 38-year-old singer and actress was arrested for "endangering an aircraft" during a flight from Los Angeles.

The widow of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana, is accused of using abusive language and refusing to remain in her seat and put on a seatbelt.

One unconfirmed report said Love flew into a rage after cabin crew refused to allow her nurse into the first-class section on the Virgin Atlantic flight. Flight staff felt she was being so disruptive that the captain decided to call the airport as flight VS08 was on its approach to Heathrow at just before 11am.

Twenty minutes after landing, Love emerged from the aircraft wearing bright red lipstick and sunglasses and was shepherded into the back of a police van with an officer taking each arm.

She was arrested on suspicion of disruptive behaviour and endangering an aircraft, which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.

The singer was taken to Heathrow police station where she was being questioned about the allegations.

Love, the lead singer of the group Hole, has a well-deserved reputation for wild and outrageous behaviour. The former stripper and heroin addict appears naked on the front of Q magazine this week.

In an attempt to revive her musical career, she took part in a photoshoot in London at Christmas. During the shoot she is said to have had a bikini wax, poured champagne over her head, stripped off in a taxi cab and streaked down Park Lane in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

Later she halted traffic by lying down in the road clad only in a pair of knickers and knee-high boots.

After Cobain shot himself in 1994, Love transformed her image and became a respected actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the 1996 film The People vs Larry Flynt.

Love is thought to have been travelling to London to attend a fund-raising concert starring Elton John and Kevin Spacey at the Old Vic Theatre in London tonight.