He does not intend to stop there. The naked baby in a swimming pool featured on the cover of Nirvana’s legendary ‘Nervermind’ album has filed a new child pornography lawsuit in Los Angeles, reviving the case after a judge dismissed his first complaint as a procedural matter .
At the end of August 2021, Spencer Elden, now 30, had filed a complaint on the grounds that neither he nor his parents would have given the slightest authorization to use his image “and certainly not for the commercial exploitation of images for child pornography of his person”. A federal provision allows victims of child pornography to seek damages from anyone who produces, distributes or owns images in which they appear.
The Los Angeles judge had closed the file on January 3 because the plaintiff had not responded in due time to the arguments opposed to him by Nirvana’s lawyers. The judge had, however, authorized Spencer Elden to file a new complaint within ten days, which he did on Wednesday.
An album sold 30 million copies
On the cover of “Nevermind”, dating from 1991, we can see him at the age of four months, swimming naked in a swimming pool and seeming to want to catch a dollar on a hook. With legendary titles like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, the album sold more than 30 million copies, becoming a rock reference.
The plaintiff, who says he never received financial compensation for the photo, is seeking $150,000 in damages from the 17 people he is suing, including former Nirvana members and Kurt Cobain’s executor Courtney Love .
In their response to the initial complaint, the defense lawyers argued, among other things, “that Elden spent three decades enjoying his fame as a self-proclaimed baby Nirvana “. “He remade the photo in exchange for remuneration on numerous occasions; he got the title of the album tattooed Nevermind on the chest (…) he autographed copies of the album cover to sell on eBay and he used this link to try to flirt with women”, they listed.
–
