‘Nevermind baby’ loses lawsuit over Nirvana album cover
Spencer Elden, the man who starred on the cover art of Nirvana’s album Nevermind when he was a baby, has lost his lawsuit against the band.
A federal judge on Friday (2 September) dismissed the lawsuit filed by Elden in August last year, on the grounds that the 31-year-old had waited too long to claim the band sexually exploited him.
In his lawsuit, Elden claimed that he was the victim of “child sexual exploitation” and that the iconic cover art was a child sexual abuse image that had been “knowingly produced, possessed and advertised” by the band.
The judge’s eight-page ruling, obtained by Buzzfeed News, also effectively prohibits Elden from filing another lawsuit against Nirvana and other co-defendants, including Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, former band members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, art director Robert Fisher, and photographer Kirk Weddle.
Bert H Deixler, who represented the defendants, said his clients were “pleased this meritless case has been brought to a swift conclusion”, in a statement to The New York Times.
Elden’s lawyer said he “intends to appeal this ruling” in a statement to Rolling Stone on Saturday (3 September).
Attoryney Margaret Mabie said: “This ruling’s interpretation of the statute of limitations on Masha’s Law contravenes over fifteen years of well-settled precedent and the legislature’s intended purpose of the law.
“Under this reading of the law, child pornography remedies vaporize once the victim in the contraband image turns 28 years old. Under this logic, any child pornography producer – such as Masha Allen’s original abuser – could simply wait out the clock and then re-distribute abusive material with impunity.
“The Nevermind cover was created at time when Spencer was a baby and it is impossible for him to age out of this victimisation while his image remains in distribution,” Mabie continued.
Elden has previously filed two different versions of the legal complaint, including in August 2021. The case against Nirvana was earlier dismissed by a California judge “with leave to amend” in January 2022.
At the time, the ruling judge gave Elden 10 days to refile his lawsuit after his lawyers missed the deadline to file an opposition to Nirvana’s estate’s request to dismiss the case, which was made in December.
The cover image shows Elden, who was four months old at the time, in a swimming pool reaching for a dollar bill with his genitals exposed. Elden had claimed that neither he nor his legal guardians signed a release authorising the use of “any images of Spencer or of his likeness”.
He also alleged that appearing on the cover had caused him “extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations”.
Lawyers representing the defendants argued that Elden had “spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed ‘Nirvana Baby’”, including recreating the photo for money and having “Nevermind” tattooed on his chest.
They also claimed that he was selling signed copies of the album on eBay and had used it as a line to pick up women.
