Courtney Love says Olivia Rodrigo promo copied her album cover

Rocker Courtney Love jousted online this weekend over similarities between the cover of her 1994 platinum album, "Live Through This," and promotional images for singer Olivia Rodrigo's upcoming concert film, "Sour Prom."

"Spot the difference! #twinning!" wrote Love, 56, on Wednesday, reposting a photo from Rodrigo's social media. The three-quarter image showed the 18-year-old singer and Disney star in a fuchsia slipdress and tiara, holding a dour bouquet of lilac- and cream-colored roses and staring off to the side, mascara running down her cheeks. The album "Live Through This," by Love and her band Hole, depicts model Leilani Bishop in close-up, wearing a crown, clutching a bouquet of assorted flowers, and bearing an exultant face that nonetheless also shows running mascara, a trope indicating tears.

Though Love added a winking-face emoji and two "queen" emoji on her message, many commenters attacked her post, prompting Love to respond several times to critics and supporters alike.

"I've informed her I await her flowers ... [and] note," Love wrote of Rodrigo in a Facebook response, adding that she's found such appropriation common. "Honey if I had a dollar for [every time] this happens? I'd be real rich!" In another, she called it "rude" of Rodrigo not to have notified "myself or Ellen von" Unwerth, the famed photographer of the album cover.

In yet another post, Love said von Unwerth "isn't amused" by Rodrigo's imagery. The Paris-based photographer told Newsday in an email, "This image belongs to Hole, Courtney Love and myself. They call it an homage, but I call it a copy, and not a very good one. I don't know why Olivia's team needs to do that. She is so amazing and has her own universe. Maybe they should have called me and we could have come up with something more original," she concluded, with a smiley-face emoticon.

Many critics noted that the album cover was inspired by iconic imagery from the 1976 movie "Carrie," in which star Sissy Spacek's titular ostracized teen, voted prom queen in a cruel prank, is drenched with a bucket of pig's blood. Von Unwerth, in a 2019 interview about the album cover, recalled, "Courtney had the idea of reenacting the scene of the movie 'Carrie,' which I loved, too." The album cover, significantly, added the motif of running mascara, which the movie did not have.

Some commenters said Love should not have called out an 18-year-old musician. One supporter responded that recording artists typically have a team of managers, agents and others around them, and placed responsibility on Rodrigo's "Creative/Marketing team."

Multiplatinum "Drivers License" singer-songwriter Rodrigo, earlier on Wednesday, had posted her prom-dress image across her social media to promote her film, which comes out Tuesday. [S]ince I never got to go to prom," she wrote, "I wanted to throw a little prom party with my fav ppl (you guys obvs)." Influential singer-songwriter Liz Phair, commenting on Rodrigo's Twitter feed, noted the similarity: "HOLE! Live Through This."

At least two outlets reported that Rodrigo had commented on Love's Instagram feed, writing, "love u and live through this sooooo much," and that Love had responded, "Olivia — you're welcome. My favorite florist is in Notting Hill, London! Dm me for deets! I look forward to reading your note!" Both sets of purported comments either were deleted or buried within the more than 3,600 responses Love's post prompted.

Rodrigo's representative did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.