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Nirvana sued by man who was nude baby on Nevermind cover for profiting off child pornography

Nirvana sued by man who was nude baby on Nevermind cover for profiting off child pornography

He says they intentionally marketed the picture and leveraged its shocking nature to promote their music at his expense.
26 Aug, 2021

A 30-year-old man who appeared nude at 4 months old in 1991 on the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album is suing the band and others, alleging the image is child pornography they have profited from.

The lawsuit, filed by Spencer Elden on Tuesday in federal court in California, alleges that Nirvana and the record labels behind Nevermind “intentionally commercially marketed Spencer’s child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense.”

The lawsuit says Elden has suffered “lifelong damages” from the ubiquitous image of him naked underwater appearing to swim after a dollar bill on a fish hook.

It seeks at least $150,000 from each of more than a dozen defendants, including the Kurt Cobain estate, surviving Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl and Geffen Records.

Emails seeking comment from representatives for the defendants were not immediately returned. Elden is filing the lawsuit now because he “finally has the courage to hold these actors accountable,” one of his attorneys, Maggie Mabie, told The Associated Press Wednesday.

Mabie said despite the photo being 30 years old, the lawsuit is within the statute of limitations of federal child pornography law for several reasons, including the fact that the image is still in circulation and earning money.

Elden also wants any new versions of the album altered.

“If there is a 30th anniversary re-release, he wants for the entire world not to see his genitals,” Mabie said.

When the cover was shot, Nirvana was a little-known grunge band with no sense they were making a generation-defining album in Nevermind, their first major label release, whose songs included 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' 'Come as You Are' and 'Lithium.'

Elden’s father was a friend of the photographer, Kirk Weddle, who took pictures of several swimming babies in several scenarios at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California.

“Cobain chose the image depicting Spencer — like a sex worker — grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed,” the lawsuit says.

Elden has recreated the image several times, always with clothes or swim trunks on, for anniversaries of the album’s release, and he has expressed mixed feelings about it in interviews that have grown increasingly negative through the years.

He told the New York Post in 2015 that it was “cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don’t even remember.”

He added, “It’d be nice to have a quarter for every person that has seen my baby penis.”

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been victims of sexual abuse, but may when they have repeatedly come forward publicly, as Elden has.

Comments

SKB Aug 26, 2021 11:13am
A good Judge may say get out of my court... with the Tattoo on his chest of Album Title and the age he was filmed, photographed must have had his parents consent.
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MG Aug 26, 2021 11:26am
If you want to sue, pl sue your parents my dear
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Krishna Aug 26, 2021 12:36pm
Finally he realised how to make money from his photo. Earlier he was happy to pose, but now he realised to make more money he has to sue them
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Daniel Aug 26, 2021 01:40pm
golddigger!
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Nawaz Aug 26, 2021 02:05pm
He should sue his parents first!.
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Love Your Country Aug 26, 2021 03:01pm
The biggest weakness in the US's justice system. Window of opportunity for lawyers.
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Ijaz Aug 26, 2021 03:05pm
Was he born an orphan? Presumably his parents gave consent and need to be questioned by him first. I suspect the real motive is to generate publicity to boost his flagging modelling career. No publicity is bad publicity in that industry!
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nk Aug 26, 2021 08:28pm
Today the profession of professionals is to make many out of a common man's imagination. 100% a lawyer may have come with this Idea.
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