You may have seen furs.com and Courtney Love mentioned in the same New York and People magazine stories this week. It seems furs.com made grunge musician Courtney Love nothing less than fur-ious recently, when we reported that she had been among several celebrities seen wearing fur in various magazines over the past couple of years. We even had the picture to prove it.

On January 28, we became the proud recipients of a three- page, handwritten letter on hotel stationery from Melbourne, Australia, signed by Courtney Love. The letter read precisely as follows:

"Dear Fur Age; I do NOT wear Fur. I never have, and i never will, I am hesitant to even ever wear fake fur to an event (wich i did once many years ago) as it would be miscontrued I think celebrities that wear Fur are really terrible influences and once I see a picture of someone in Fur I am then convinced they are just really stupid, selfish, and nasty -- which is why i rarely even wear fake. please take me off your list immediately as I am truly offended by this giant lie. Sincerely Courtney Love"

A cover letter written by someone else indicated that copies were simultaneously sent to Love's management representative in New York City as well as to the animal rights group People for the ethical Treatment of Animals.

Interestingly, almost two hours later, the letter came again, this time typed and cleaned up, under a fax cover letter from her New York City management representative.

Yesterday Scott Rubman, publisher of furs.com, responded to Ms. Love with the following letter:

"Dear Ms. Love: Thank you for your strange 'Love' letter demanding that you be removed from our visual montage of celebrities which wear fur posted on our Website furs.com. The pictures are compiled from various publications who have previously published photographs of celebrities wearing furs -- including yourself!

"The photograph of you with fur around your neck was first published in the October 1997 issue of Harper's Bazaar, and was part of a larger story about celebrities who wear fur. Furthermore, it was confirmed and verified by the magazine's own fact-checking department.

"You write, 'celebrities that wear fur are really terrible influences and once I see a picture of someone in fur I am then convinced they are just really stupid, selfish and nasty'. Well...

"Whether the fur seen in the photograph is real or faux may be debatable. You state in your letter, however, that you never have or never will, wear fur, although you concede that you did wear fake fur once many years ago. Was this photograph taken many years ago? I think not! Fortunately, your image evolution has been well documented in the media.

"We will not remove your name or photograph from furs.com. We stand by our story. Very truly yours, Scott A. Rubman, Publisher"