Controversial Courtney Love has given up on her shift from grunge to glamor.

"I've tried to be elegant and Grace Kelly-cool, and it's a disaster," she confesses to TV Week while talking about her role in the upcoming Jim Carrey movie Man On The Moon, due out in Australia next year. "I tried for five minutes and I can't do it, so why bother?"

The outspoken 34-year-old singer/actress has tried to be plenty of things in her colorful career.

Raised by hippies in the US state of Oregon, Courtney's troubled childhood saw her spend time in juvenile correctional facilities before she found a way out through music.

In 1989, she formed her own band Hole and had some initial success - but it was the suicide of her husband, Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, in April, 1994 that really catapulted Courtney into the public eye.

Further musical success followed, and there was an unlikely resurrection as a movie star when she was cast in the Golden Globe-winning 1996 film The People Vs Larry Flynt.

Courtney denies there was a plan to "go Hollywood", despite the fact she hired a top publicist and showed up as a a nominee at the Golden Globe ceremony that year wearing a designer gown on loan from her friend, movie star Sharon Stone.

"Everything I've done comes from the heart," she insists. "If my heart leads me there, and I get prizes and money and dressed up in a gown and go to your awards ceremony, that is fun and fabulous."

In Man On The Moon, Courtney plays the girlfriend of cult 1970s US comedian Andy Kaufman. The film stars Jim Carrey as Kaufman, a performer many consider to be one of the most innovative, eccentric and enigmatic comedians of our time.

The film's director, Milos Forman, describes Courtney's character, Lynne Margulies, as a "loving, vulnerable and innocent girl."

The question is obvious - what made him think of the woman who played a stripper in The People Vs Larry Flynt?

"Courtney is one of those rare, giant talents who can be easily confused and thrown off if wrongly cast or wrongly talked to," Milos says. "She is most sensitive, but I have found her to be very, very professional."

Courtney doesn't know what to make of her reputation. She admits she wants to be liked, but then goes out of her way to be provocative.

"Did you ask Jim Carrey that question?" she replies with annoyance when TV Week asks about her sexuality.

Then, in response to her involvement in protecting the legacy of Kurt Cobain, she says "In a bad mood, I wouldn't even answer that question because it's none of your business."

Finally, she responds by saying, "I feel like there should be a testament to who he was, but I've handed it to someone else."

Although Courtney doesn't talk about her private life - "never have, never will" - she does credit her former boyfriend, actor Edward Norton, with teaching her how to do more form the heart.

"Edward taught me to start giving things back before you think you're ready," she explains.

"I really want to rescue people, so Gwenyth (her friend, Gwenyth Paltrow) and I have been talking about this organisation that she runs with her mom, Imagination Workshop. They go into mental hospitals and juvenile halls, and do theatre and show kids how to be creative."

"That's what somebody did when I was in trouble. They brought in records and a punk rock magazine and said to me, 'Courtney, you can be bad here.' In many ways, it rescued me."

Courtney confesses that she and Gwenyth even dream about each other.

"Isn't that weird?" she laughs. "We were talking about it the other day on the phone. People find her sexier than me because she's innocent and I'm not, and that's why we show up in each other's dreams."

"It was a very interesting conversation," Courtney says with a grin.