Nevermind’s cover baby sues Nirvana for child pornography
Remember the baby from the cover art of the iconic Nirvana album Nevermind? Well, he’s now suing the band for child pornography, stating that what Nirvana did violated the federal child pornography statutes.
30-year-old Spencer Elden, who’s the baby from the cover, claims that Nirvana’s act tied him to a lifelong commercial sexual exploitation. Here’s what the lawsuit states about that.
“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever tied to the commercial sexual exploitation he experienced as a minor which has been distributed and sold worldwide from the time he was a baby to the present day.“
Furthermore, the claim is that Spencer Elden’s parents never allowed the band to use the photo this way. Nirvana reportedly said they would put a sticker on the baby’s genitals, however, it didn’t turn out to be the case.
“To ensure the album cover would trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer, Weddle activated Spencer’s ‘gag reflex’ before throwing him underwater in poses highlighting and emphasizing Spencer’s exposed genitals,” mentions the lawsuit.
It’s reported that Nirvana paid the family $200 to take that photo of the baby and the shooting took around 15 seconds.
The lawsuit says that Elden has proximately suffered from emotional distress with physical manifestations which interfered with his development and educational progress, and much more.
“The permanent harm he has proximately suffered includes but is not limited to extreme and permanent emotional distress with physical manifestations, interference with his normal development and educational progress, lifelong loss of income earning capacity, loss of past and future wages, past and future expenses for medical and psychological treatment, loss of enjoyment of life, and other losses to be described and proven at trial of this matter.”
Earlier remarks of Nirvana Nevermind cover baby
Back in 2016, the cover star recreated his photo at the 25th anniversary of the iconic album. Initially, he intended to do it naked, but the photographer talked him out of it.
“The anniversary means something to me. It’s strange that I did this for five minutes when I was four months old and it became this really iconic image,” he said. “It’s cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don’t even remember.”
In another interview, Spencer Elden expressed his “losing the party” feelings about the album. While everyone in the band made a LOT of money off the album, the cover artist’s family only got 200 bucks.
“It’s a trip. Everyone involved in the album has tons and tons of money. I feel like I’m the last little bit of grunge rock. I’m living in my mom’s house and driving a Honda Civic. It’s hard not to get upset when you hear how much money was involved,” he said. “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.”
