Purdue Pharma heiress Joss Sackler tried to pay recovering opioid addict Courtney Love $100,000 to attend the Fashion Week show for her LBV line, according to emails obtained by the New York Post. Joss Sackler is married to David Sackler, whose family owns Purdue, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, and has been hit with billions in lawsuits over their role in the opioid crisis. The Sacklers are accused of profiting from a drug epidemic that the Centers for Disease Control says kills 46 people every day.
“I am one of the most famous reformed junkies on the planet — my husband died on heroin — What is it about me that says to Joss Sackler, ’I will sell out to you?’” Love said in a statement issued to the Post. “Well I won’t.”
Love has spoken openly about her substance abuse issues over the years, which included an addiction to OxyContin.
According to Love, Sackler’s team offered to pay her $100,000 and provide hair, makeup, car service to and from the runway show, and a dress from the LBV line made with “custom-gold thread.”
Love’s statement continued: “I never would take their money — Joss is delusional, talking about her fashion line and private members club, their ‘philanthropical arm.’ What about instead giving money to rehab facilities, paying for Narcan (a medication that counters opioid overdoses) or creating a non-addictive painkiller? This request from Joss Sackler is shameless and offensive after everything I, many of my friends, and millions of other addicts have been through with OxyContin. I’m sober, but I will always be an opioid addict, it doesn’t vanish. I will always be that, I am just in recovery. And, equally. a fashion line with 24 carat gold thread won’t ever cover up or wash away the stains on Joss Sackler and her family.”
The emails to Love from Joss Sackler’s team referred to Love as a celebrity who “best embodies the women they are dressing … strong and undeterred.” The emails also sought to distance Joss Sackler and her fashion line from the rest of the family by stating “The brand has no relation to Purdue … other than Joss is married to the family.”
Since it was discovered that Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed Oxycontin despite knowing that it was dangerously addictive, the Sackler family have become pariahs in their social and philanthropic circles. According to another New York Post story from Sunday, Joss and David moved from Manhattan to Palm Beach to hide out, but Joss Sackler sent out mailers for today’s runway show that herself as a “undeterred ‘phoenix’…who celebrates the persevering and unyielding woman.” The Post reports that fashion editors, celebrities, and other Fashion Week fixtures were also avoiding her show.
When contacted by Post for comment, Joss Sackler spokesperson Elizabeth Tuke said, “This is not accurate. Courtney Love is not attending [the show]. I can’t comment any further.” SPIN reached out to both Joss Sackler and Love’s reps, who did not immediately respond.
Update (8:00 p.m. ET): Hours after the Post published its report, Sackler posted several screenshots on Instagram that allegedly show Love’s publicist Beth Morris asking for more money to secure the rock icon’s attendance at LDV’s show. “It would need to be 275k minimum,” Morris appears to have written in one email. “We also like to protect her image as much as poss – the association w/ wine and pharmaceuticals here tough one,” reads another. In captions, Sackler describes the Post‘s report as “fake news.”
Love responded in several Instagram posts of her own, including one that appears to show her asking Sackler to donate money to foundations that support musicians’ addiction recovery services. The screenshotted message in question also asks Sackler to provide information on how Purdue Pharma supports addicts. “Fake news? You asshole!” Love writes in one caption. “Your ‘people’ imperiously told us that #sackler #purduepharma ‘supports addicts etc’ … and refused to show ANY receipt.” She continued: “Got Nothing to hide you bitch . Your . People. Killed. My. People. Idiot. Missing the entire point. Come for me Sackler .”
View the posts in question below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2NIHyhllyG/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2NQNlsFbBb/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2NMVU4lLsA/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2NNaJIlJwn/
