Nirvana cover baby loses another porn lawsuit โ RT Entertainment
The man who claims his appearance as a naked baby on the cover of Nirvanaโs iconic album โNevermindโ was child pornography has lost another lawsuit against the band.
โNevermindโ, Nirvanaโs most successful album, was released in 1991; it included the hit song โSmells Like Teen Spiritโ and sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Its cover features four-month-old Spencer Elden swimming towards a dollar bill attached to a fishing hook.
Elden, who is now 34, initially filed a lawsuit against the band in 2021, claiming that his name has been โforever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor.โ The next year, US District Judge Fernando Olguin dismissed the case because it was submitted after the ten-year filing limit, but did not address the substance of the allegations.
However, after an appeals court reversed the decision, Elden again sued surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, late front man Kurt Cobainโs widow Courtney Love, and photographer Kirk Weddle in 2022, seeking at least $150,000 from each of the defendants.
On Tuesday, Olguin threw out the case for the second time, saying that no reasonable jury would find the cover of โNevermindโ to be pornographic. The image was more like a โfamily photo of a nude child bathing,โ he argued.
“Neither the pose, focal point, setting, nor overall context suggest the album cover features sexually explicit conduct,โ the judge ruled.
Nirvanaโs lawyer Bert Deixler said in a statement that his team was โdelighted that the court has ended this meritless case and freed our creative clients of the stigma of false allegations.โ
A law firm representing Eldenโs interests told the Rolling Stone on Wednesday that they โrespectfully disagreeโ with Olguinโs decision and plan to appeal against it. โAs long as the entertainment industry prioritizes profits over childhood privacy, consent, and dignity, we will continue our pursuit for awareness and accountability,โ it said.
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