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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Even In Death, Poor Kurt Was Still On Tour

Compiled By Staff Writer Rick Bo

Kurt Cobain hasn’t exactly been resting in peace, according to Esquire magazine.

Rejected by Seattle cemeteries, widow Courtney Love carried Cobain’s ashes around the country in a teddy-bear backpack, Esquire says, searching for a suitable disposal site.

Once she was stopped by an airport security guard who opened the sack and asked, “What’s this?” as dust puffed out.

Replied Love: “That’s my husband.”

In July, Love left “about two handfuls” of her husband at a Buddhist monastery in Ithaca, N.Y., to be consecrated by being mixed with clay and molded into a cone.

When she never returned, the monks boxed up the ashes and delivered them to an undisclosed location. Said a spokesman: “We’re not the final stop. We’re no Graceland.”

Tori Amos, on why she steers clear of the information highway (in People magazine): “I have a nine-foot piano in my home to compose my messages. Why would I want a onefoot computer to do the same thing?” It’s not easy blowing out candles in the rain

Melanie turns 49 today.

Was he the cute one, or the dead one?

Oasis songwriter/guitarist Noel Gallagher, on meeting Paul McCartney at a party (in Newsweek magazine): “He knew the names of some of our songs. I was surprised by that … He said, ‘Aren’t you in that band Oasis?’ And I was like, ‘Weren’t you in … the Beatles?”’

Guess nobody played devil’s advocate

Johnson City, Tenn., officials canceled Sunday’s scheduled White Zombie concert in the wake of complaints over the band’s alleged “satanic message.” Said Vice Mayor Bob May: “I don’t care if it is the First Amendment. This is a disgrace.”

Sort of like Mother Teresa in a cone bra

As you might expect, Madonna is taking all the Argentine controversy over her starring role in the film version of the Broadway musical “Evita” in stride. “Many people see Eva Peron as either a saint or the incarnation of Satan,” she told a Buenos Aires magazine. “That means I definitely can identify with her.”

Because he’d rather be a globetrotter

Meanwhile, Brazilian leaders are up in arms over Michael Jackson’s plan to shoot a video for his song “They Don’t Care About Us” in a violent Rio de Janeiro slum, saying it will “devastate” the city’s campaign to host the 2004 Olympics. Said one official: “If he wants poverty, why doesn’t he go and film in Harlem?”

I now pronounce you … well, maybe not

Here’s hoping he’s luckier in marriage than Michael: The artist formerly known as Prince has announced he will wed fiancee Mayte (pronounced MY-tay) in a private ceremony in Paris on Valentine’s Day. So will she take his, er, name? Said a publicist: “That’s the question on the tip of everyone’s tongue.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino