Courtney Love has settled the lawsuit brought against her over a series of comments made over Twitter in 2009.
The Hole frontwoman will have to pay around $430,000 (£265,000) to designer Dawn Simorangkir in an extended payment plan that will stretch all the way through to 2014.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that the settlement deal is currently being finalised and will be announced next week.
The suit dated back to 2009 or a series of “menacing and disturbing” messages Love apparently posted on Twitter. A disagreement led Love to call the designer, known as the ‘Boudoir Queen’, an “asswipe nasty lying hosebag thief”. Simorangkir claimed she had been defamed and sued for damages.
Had it gone to trial, the case would have served as a test case as the first high-profile court battle over what constitutes defamation on Twitter.
Love argued that she was simply expressing an opinion and that Simorangkir could not prove defamation. She countered, pointing out Love‘s influence as an entertainer “and the power of social media to disseminate such comments”.
Simorangkir‘s lawyer Bryan Freedman claimed victory, saying: “Her reprehensible defamatory comments were completely false and $430,000 (£265,000) is quite a significant way to say I am sorry. One would hope that, given this disaster, restraint of pen, tongue and tweet would guide Ms Love‘s future conduct.”
However, Love‘s lawyer James Janowitz played it down. “Because of the extended payout it’s a modest settlement. They got out with an amount that left them bragging rights but nothing else.”
Love quit Twitter shortly after, after repeatedly tweeting about her business affairs. She later rejoined with a protected account, but has rarely used the service in recent months, now preferring Facebook.