5th Sign of Apocalypse: Courtney Love Sued for Twitter Feed

Just what she needs -- and what Movieline HQ needs to supplement its increasing file of apocalyptic evidence: a fashion designer is suing Courtney Love for posting a stream of slanderous Tweets about her. This seemingly ridiculous lawsuit marks the first high-profile defamation trial over a celebrity's Twitter feed. Ahead, the gritty details of this legal war waged over a series of 140 character messages, including Love's inventive insults about a designer you have probably never heard of.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Love ignited this war of Twits in March 2009, after fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir demanded that the former Hole frontwoman reimburse her for thousands of dollars worth of clothes. Among the inventive insults made, Love claimed that Simorangkir was a "drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery who lost custody of her own child and capitalized on Love's fame before stealing from her." As everyone does, Love used the social network to explain that she had already paid the designer over $40,000 and made her famous. Her 40,000 followers received the Tweets and in some instances, re-Tweeted them.

Simorangkir's lawyer Bryan Freedman will attempt to convince a Los Angeles courtroom that Love's tweets -- often riddled with misspellings, incoherent phrases and unnecessary punctuation -- ruined his client's reputation and destroyed her fashion career. Love is scheduled to testify in court. Sigh.

Folks who are already dry-heaving at the possibility of other multimillion dollar celebrity Twitter lawsuits, this is only the beginning. Consider this metaphorical can of worms opened.

· Courtney Love's Tweets Lead to Unique Defamation Showdown [THR via AV Club]