WHAT BECOMES A LEGEND: It’s only March,...

WHAT BECOMES A LEGEND: It’s only March, but we’ve already got a cinch for our Temperamental Pop Diva of the Year Award. The winner? Inger Lorre, tempestuous lead singer of the Nymphs, a highly touted new band signed to Geffen Records. The 24-year-old pop beauty has been the focus of a huge industry buzz--first for her band’s music, now for her--ahem--outrageous behavior. Her most recent misadventure occured last week when the songstress became enraged after discovering that the Nymphs debut album was being delayed. Why? Because her A&R; exec, Tom Zutaut, had played rough tapes of the record for Guns N’ Roses manager Alan Niven, who liked its sound so much that Zutaut let him borrow the Nymphs’ producer to mix GNR’s album.

Zutaut had been trying to land the Nymphs an opening-act slot on the GNR tour, but that didn’t get him off the hook. After drinking a couple of beers and a cup of coffee, Lorre stormed into his office. “I wouldn’t have believed what happened if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” says Geffen publicity chief Bryn Bridenthal. “She got up on top of his desk, took off her shorts and said, ‘You’ve (expletive) all over us, now I’m going to (urinate) all over you.’ ” And she did.

Instead of being embarrassed by the incident, the Geffen publicity folk view it as budding rock-starlet behavior. Perhaps Lorre was inspired after seeing Jim Morrison’s antics in “The Doors.” “I like to think of it as performance art,” says Bridenthal. “I suppose it was gross, but it was also a really studly thing for Inger to do to defend her band.”