Well, if Louise Wener thinks she has problems (see yesterday's post) that's nothing compared to the recent troubles of another erstwhile indie heroine Bridget Cross. Unless you're a Seattle scenester or indie anorak it's likely you've never heard of Cross but she sang in the early incarnations of Sub Pop band Velocity Girl before moving on to play for Unrest and Air Miami. More recently she helped out on backing vocals on Fugazi's The Argument.

Anyway via metafilter I learned of this site which is aiming to raise benefit towards helping with Bridget's legal costs following an incident while she was holidaying in Alaska last year. Details are sketchy and open to interpretation but the main facts that all sources seem to agree upon are that Bridget and her black South African boyfriend Franswa Fernandez were drinking in a bar, there was a fracas, a local got stabbed, Bridget got out of there fast and drove her beau towards Canada where they were turned away at the border and later arrested. Her friend claims that the dispute arose from the pair being harassed by racist rednecks although this is so far unsubstantiated, and a couple of Metafilter users who've visited that particular bar suggest that this would have been by no means typical in a place frequented by tourists.

A couple of news reports offer a slightly different angle on the story, and update it further by revealing that Bridget and her boyfriend have settled pleas, with Ms. Cross having received a suspended sentence. Franswa Fernandez is awaiting sentencing May 10 for second-degree assault. Apparently, neither Cross nor Fernandez have any previous criminal record.