the law

The Nirvana Baby’s Nevermind Porn Lawsuit Lives On

Photo: DGC

Update Thursday, January 13, at 1:20 p.m.: Never mind — the lawsuit over the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind is back on. Spencer Elden, who appeared naked on the album cover as a baby, refiled his lawsuit claiming the cover was child pornography, per Rolling Stone. A judge had previously dismissed the suit after Elden did not respond to a motion in time. In the refiling, while Elden still alleges Nirvana profited off child pornography via the cover, he drops a claim that the cover also constituted sex trafficking.

Update Tuesday, January 4, at 10:00 a.m.: The lawsuit against Nirvana brought by the person who appeared naked on the cover of Nevermind as a baby has been dismissed. The BBC reports that Spencer Elden, now 30, failed to respond to a motion to dismiss by representatives of the band, leading a California judge to dismiss the case. In the motion to dismiss, lawyers for surviving band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic as well as Courtney Love (wife of the late Kurt Cobain) and photographer Kirk Weddle claimed Elden’s child-pornography allegation was “on its face, not that serious.†The lawyers continued that Elden previously did not seem to mind the cover. “He has re-enacted the photograph in exchange for a fee, many times; he has had the album title … tattooed across his chest; he has appeared on a talk show wearing a self-parodying, nude-colored onesie; he has autographed copies of the album cover for sale on eBay; and he has used the connection to try to pick up women,†they claimed in the motion. The case was dismissed with “a leave to amend,†giving Elden until January 13 to refile appropriately.

Original story follows.

You may not know the name Spencer Elden, but you definitely know his tiny, buoyant, baby body. He’s the now-30-year-old infant featured swimming toward a dollar bill on the cover of Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind, and he filed a lawsuit yesterday claiming that the image “constituted child pornography.†According to Variety, Elden’s case that the famous album art is actually porn is built around an interpretation of the image that claims the dollar bill of it all “intentionally†frames the baby as a “sex worker†reaching for a tip. Elden is demanding $150,000 from defendants including Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Courtney Love, and the managers of Kurt Cobain’s estate, as well as the album’s photographer and art director, and record companies involved with its release.

In the past, Elden has been game to re-create the cover on the album’s anniversaries, but in an interview with Time on the album’s 25th anniversary in 2016, he also expressed some feelings of violation regarding the phenomenon. “[When] I go to a baseball game and think about it: ‘Man, everybody at this baseball game has probably seen my little baby penis,’ I feel like I got part of my human rights revoked,†he told Time at the time.

The Nirvana Baby’s Nevermind Porn Lawsuit Lives On