Courtney Love sued by rehab center over fees

LOS ANGELES, Mar 11 (Reuters) Rock star Courtney Love is being sued by a luxury Southern California rehab center that says she has not paid a 180,000 dollars bill for drug and alcohol treatment in 2005, court document show.

The Beau Monde center, which offers massages, gourmet food and whale watching to its predominantly wealthy celebrity clients, said in a lawsuit that the singer paid 10,000 dollars up front but failed to pay the remaining fees.

Love, 42, spent four months at the residential facility in 2005 on the orders of a Los Angeles judge after the singer spent months in and out of courts on drug charges and one charge of assaulting a woman friend of her ex-boyfriend.

The widow of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain has publicly spoken about her time at Beau Monde in Newport Beach, south of Los Angeles.

Citing client confidentiality, Beau Monde declined comment on the breach of contract lawsuit, filed this month in Orange County Superior Court.

''Our program has become highly respected for its ability to ensure absolute privacy and anonymity for our high-profile clients,'' founder Heidi Kunzli said in a statement yesterday.

Love's lawyer, Howard Weitzman, told the Los Angeles Times that there was a difference of opinion over how much money was owed, adding ''this matter is in the process of being resolved.'' REUTERS SB KP0926