Baby on Nevermind cover sues Nirvana over child sexual exploitation

Baby on Nevermind cover sues Nirvana over child sexual exploitation.

Spencer Elden appeared as a baby on what is said to be one of the most iconic album covers ever made.  He is now suing the band, and has filed a lawsuit in California. The photo shows him as a baby, naked in water as he swims towards a dollar bill.

The lawsuit has been filed against Courtney Love, who is Kurt Cobain’s widow and also against the record label, amongst others.

In the lawsuit the defendants are accused of “commercial child sexual exploitation of him from while he was a minor to the present day … defendants knowingly produced, possessed and advertised commercial child pornography depicting Spencer”.

However, in 2016 Elden set out to mark the 25th anniversary of the album with the New York Post. The image was recreated and he said: “It’s cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don’t even remember.”

Later the same year Elden also commented that: “Recently I’ve been thinking, ‘What if I wasn’t OK with my freaking penis being shown to everybody?’ I didn’t really have a choice.”

The iconic photo was taken by Kirk Weddle. Speaking to the Guardian in 2019 he said: “I’m still in contact with Spencer. I used to think, ‘Man, when that kid is 16 he’s gonna hate my guts!’ He doesn’t, but he’s conflicted about the picture. He feels that everybody made money off it and he didn’t. I think he deserves something. But it’s always the record labels that make the money.”

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