Spencer Elden, 30, has an unique claim to fame: he was the naked, swimming baby whose photo graces the cover of Nirvana's seminal 1991 album Nevermind. He's made a lot of his youthful fame over the years, but is now suing the band claiming that the image was pornographic.
"The images exposed Spencer's intimate body part and lasciviously displayed Spencer's genitals from the time he was an infant to the present day," legal papers filed in California claim.
Non-sexualised photos of infants are generally not considered child pornography under US law.
However, Elden's lawyer, Robert Y. Lewis, argues that the inclusion of the dollar bill (which was superimposed after the photograph was taken) makes the minor seem "like a sex worker".
I always thought the album cover was such a crude and naive charicature of capitalism and consumerism that it could only be ironic. But here is that exact baby, still flacidly swimming toward a dollar thirty years later.
