ED NORTON SPRINGS TO LOVE'S DEFENSE Rocker-cum-actress Courtney Love and her People vs. Larry Flynt co-star Edward Norton have been less than forthcoming in the media in regard to their reported romance, but that was before Love was slighted in the pages of the venerable New Yorker. Now Norton - a knight in shining armor who realizes that the pen is mightier than the sword - has responded with that valiant defense, the Letter to the Editor. Norton's missive, published in this week's edition of the mag, was in response to last month's "Endless Love," a piece by Daphne Merkin centering on Nick Broomfield's controversial documentary Kurt & Courtney. The film, filled with speculation that Love's husband Kurt Cobain was a murder victim rather than a suicide, features a litany of Love-haters anxious to air their grievances. The magazine's coverage of Broomfield's film - along with Merkin's thoughtful contributions - didn't sit well with Norton. "If Nick Broomfield never found anyone with affection for Courtney Love, as Daphne Merkin suggests, it's only because he conspicuously avoided the countless friends, colleagues, and fans who appreciate her talent and admire her as a person," Norton writes. "But then, why would Broomfield have opened up his film to those of us who work with Courtney and are close to her when there were so many bitter left-behinds and desperate attention-seekers eager to validate his attack on her character?" Norton compares Broomfield's documentary to a classic witch-hunt: "Inquisitors in every age, scared of forceful women, have used all kinds of half-baked testimony to whip up chants of 'Burn the witch!'" The actor accused Merkin of "simply capitalizing on the prurience of Broomfield's tabloid trash by repeating it. Her only original contribution is her conclusion that Courtney was of more value as an icon of pain and self-destruction than she is as a complex, evolving, and healthy human being - a conclusion that is sexist, intellectually shallow, and spiritually bankrupt. In the end, Courtney's achievements will speak louder than any of her critics." - Mr. Showbiz (http://www.mrshowbiz.com) Tuesday, July 7, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - -