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 .
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For the second time, Spencer Elden, now 30, has filed a complaint against the band Nirvana for exploiting his image on the cover of their album nevermind in 1991. At the end of August 2021, he announced that neither he nor his parents would have given any authorization to use his image “and certainly not for the commercial exploitation of child pornography images of him”. 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.
On the cover of nevermind, dating from 1991, can be seen 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 stardom as ‘baby Nirvana‘self-proclaimed’.
“He remade the picture 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 hit on women”, they listed.