“Is she really coming?” was the question on everyone’s lips Saturday night at the Guggenheim’s Maurizio Cattelan: All closing ceremony.  The “she” in question, Ms. Courtney Love, was to be the grand finale in “The Last Word,” an evening of performances by 30-something artists, entertainers, and scholars in celebration (and in mourning) of Mr. Cattelan’s retirement from the art world. Each participant was tasked with an assignment: give a presentation on “the end,” a concept open to interpretation, and begin said presentation with an epitaph of their own choosing. Ghastly, right? Yet somehow, right up Ms. Love’s alley, who did indeed arrive and surprise with a remarkably poised and intelligent reflection on life and death in the world of showbiz.  Check out the highlights of the event...

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The night included booze at the “Gug,” a Richard Pryor drag performance by Jennifer Kidwell, short-short-stories by Garden State author Rick Moody, mind-bending video shorts by fashion gurus Proenza Schouler and Harmony Korine, a “hair-razing” act by electronic music duo Matmos, the recorded funeral of Patrick Ireland and well, everything you’d ever want (or not want) to know about death, cults, and apocalypses, including the conclusion by Courtney Love herself.