A California judge granted a motion Monday to dismiss a recent lawsuit for child pornography featured by the man who appeared as a baby on the cover of NirvanaThe famous album “Nevermind”.
The lawsuit, filed in August against members of the former band, their music executives and the photographer of the session, was filed by Spencer Elden, 30, who claimed that he will “suffer damage for life” thanks to the album cover, which depicts him as a baby with his genitals on the cover of his hit 1991 album.
After the defendants filed for dismissal of the lawsuit on Dec. 22, Elden and his legal team had until Dec. 30 to file an opposition, but did not, according to legal documents filed Monday and obtained by USA TODAY. .
Therefore, an oral argument originally scheduled for January 20 was overturned, although United States District Judge Fernando M. Olguin granted Elden “one last chance” until January 13 to amend his complaint before the case is dismissed once and for all.
USA TODAY has contacted the Elden representative for comment.
Elden filed a lawsuit in August in Los Angeles federal court against gang members Dave Grohl, Chad Channing, Krist Novoselic and the late Kurt Cobain, whom Elden accuses of knowingly producing, possessing and advertising “commercial child pornography.” when they put a nude photo of him as a baby on their album cover, catapulting them to stardom.
“(The) defendants intentionally commercialized Spencer’s child pornography and took advantage of the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at their expense,” reads an excerpt from the lawsuit, previously obtained by USA TODAY. “The defendants used child pornography depicting Spencer as an essential element of a record promotion scheme commonly used in the music industry to gain attention, in which album covers featured children in a sexually provocative way to gain notoriety, drive sales, and attract media attention and criticism. reviews. “
Elden requested a jury trial and $ 150,000 from each of the 17 defendants, which include the former band members along with Courtney Love, Cobain’s estate executor, the album’s photographer and designer, and the record companies Universal. Music Group, Geffen, Warner and MCA Music.
Previous story:Man who appeared on Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ album as a baby sues gang for child pornography
The lawsuit alleges that Cobain, who died in 1994 at age 27, purposely chose the image of Elden with his penis visible, reaching for a dollar bill dangling from a hook “like a sex worker.”
“Spencer’s true identity and legal name are forever linked to the commercial sexual exploitation that she experienced as a child, which has been distributed and sold around the world from when she was a baby to the present day,” the lawsuit adds.
Elden previously recreated the cover art to celebrate the 15th and 25th anniversaries of the album’s release. In 2016, he said The New York Post He volunteered to do his latest version of the nude cover, but the photographer “thought it would be weird.”
He spoke positively of the cover a year earlier, speaking in 2015 to USA TODAY at the Seattle Museum of Pop Culture, which featured the album cover “Nevermind” in an exhibit titled “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses.”
Photographer Kirk Weddle, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with graphic designer Robert Fisher, was tasked with taking the cover photo for what would become Nirvana’s groundbreaking album. He was friends with Elden’s parents and asked if their 4-month-old could be part of the shoot.
“My dad was like, ‘Ah, no problem, man. We’ll just go down in the pool and throw it and that will be it,'” Elden recalled. “And it wasn’t a big deal. And no one knew what it would become.”
His parents were paid $ 200, he said. To date, the album has sold more than 30 million copies, according to the lawsuit, which also claims that neither Elden nor his parents signed a statement authorizing his images.
“It’s just opened doors for me and it’s been a very positive and fun experience,” she said in the 2015 interview.
Plus:Courtney Love remembers Kurt Cobain on what would have been their 28th wedding anniversary
Y:Classification of songs from the classic Nirvana album ‘No matter’
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism