Nirvana has filed a motion to dismiss the “Nevermind baby” lawsuit that accuses the band and other defendants of violating child pornography laws with the iconic album cover.
Spencer Elden, now 30 years old, continues to allege that the cover image used as the cover of 1991’s Nevermind, which depicts a four-month-old Elden underwater with exposed genitals, was meant to be sexual in nature and “trigger a visceral sexual response from the viewer.”
However, the Nirvana camp — including surviving band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, as well as Kurt Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love — want the lawsuit thrown out, calling it “not serious” and stating that is was filed years too late in a motion to dismiss the lawsuit submitted on Wednesday (December 22nd).
It’s the first time the band and the other defendants have formally responded to the lawsuit. They state that the suit was filed years after the federal statute of limitations had run out, adding that Elden had embraced the image in the intervening years.
“Elden has spent three decades profiting from his celebrity as the self-anointed ‘Nirvana Baby’,” reads the motion. “He has reenacted the photograph in exchange for a fee, many times; he has had the album title ‘Nevermind’ tattooed across his chest; he has appeared on a talk show wearing a self-parodying, nude-colored onesie; he has autographed copies of the album cover for sale on eBay; and he has used the connection to try to pick up women.”
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