Case closed. A California judge has dismissed a child pornography lawsuit filed by the baby-turned-adult who appears nude on the cover of Nirvana’s legendary 1991 album “Nevermind,” according to a court document dated Friday. Los Angeles Judge Fernando Olguin dismissed the complaint, in particular on the grounds of limitation, according to this document.
At the end of August 2021, a month before the 30th anniversary of the release of the album, Spencer Elden, now thirty, had filed a first complaint, followed by a second in January 2022 after a first rejection for other reasons, in saying victim of“commercial exploitation of images of a child pornography nature”.
Photographed in 1991 at the age of four months, Spencer Elden appears naked in a swimming pool on the cover of Nevermind, the gaze ogling on a dollar bill on a hook. With legendary titles like Smells Like Teen Spirit, the cult album sold more than 30 million copies, becoming a rock reference.
The plaintiff, who said he never received financial compensation for the photo and assured that his parents had not given permission to use his image in this way, claimed 150,000 dollars in damages from each of the 15 people he was suing, including former Nirvana members, Kurt Cobain’s executor, Courtney Love, and photographer, Kirk Weddle.
In a memorandum responding to the complaint and added to the file, their lawyers contended on the contrary that“Elden has spent three decades enjoying fame as the self-proclaimed ‘Baby Nirvana'”. “He’s done the photo again for pay on numerous occasions; he’s had the album title ‘Nevermind’ tattooed on his chest… he’s autographed copies of the album cover to sell them on eBay and he used this link to try to hit on women”they listed.