Nirvana wins dismissal of lawsuit over naked baby on ‘Nevermind’ album cover

Spencer Elden, 31, alleged that a photo taken when he was a four-month-old baby constituted child pornography.

FILE - Nirvana band members, from left, Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain pose after receiving an award for best alternative video at the 10th annual MTV Video Music Awards in Universal City, Calif., on Sept. 2, 1993. A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit of a 30-year-old man who alleged that the image of him nude as a baby on the 1991 cover of Nirvanas Nevermind" is child pornography. Judge Fernando Olguin granted the motion by Nirvana's attorneys to dismiss the case Monday, Jan. 3, 2022 but said plaintiff Spencer Elden can refile an amended version of the suit. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File) (Mark J. Terrill, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

In a decision Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who appeared on the cover of the Nirvana album “Nevermind” as a naked four-month-old baby and claimed decades later that the photo constituted child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Olguin said Spencer Elden, 31, waited too long to claim Nirvana sexually exploited him when the Seattle grunge rock band used an image of him swimming naked toward a dollar bill on the cover of the hit record “Nevermind,” released in 1991.

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The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against the estate of the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain; Cobain’s former bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic; Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love; photographer Kirk Weddle; and other defendants, including several record labels.

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