Spencer Elden, 30, is upset at how his penis has been portrayed through the years, wants people to understand shrinkage, and puberty.
By: Paul Flax-Mills
Spencer Elden was four months old when he was photographed by a family friend in 1991 drifting naked in a pool. He thought he was in the sink.
The picture would later be used for the album cover, Nevermind, the second album by the Seattle grunge band Nirvana. Nirvana’s second album was a seminal hit for Generation X and helped a whole generation of idiots grow up to be whiny, lazy, corporate sheep.
In the decades that followed Elden celebrated his part in the classic cover, sometimes even recreating the picture for anniversaries and re-releases. He has now changed his tune.
“When my photo was first used, it was on a billboard on the Los Angeles strip, and my male organ of love was a staggering ten feet long. But now with people mainly listening to music on their iPhones, my male appendage is only a few pixels. It’s disingenuous, slanderous, and defamatory.” Elden said in a recent interview.
Mr. Elden is now filing a federal lawsuit against the band and record company. He claims that they profited from his naked image, and never took proper precautions to explain to the public that the water in the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center was very cold.
“Defendants knowingly produced, possessed, and advertised child pornography depicting Spencer, and they knowingly received value in exchange for doing so. But worse than that, they manipulated Mr. Elden’s image so that the size of his male organ changes depending on the viewing medium,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday in the Federal Court of California.
Mr. Elden has suffered “permanent harm” because of his association with the album including bouts of impotence, depression, and the filmography of Anne Hathaway. The lawsuit did not provide details about the losses and said they would be disclosed in court.
Mr. Elden, an artist living in Los Angeles County, has gone to therapy for years to work through how the album cover has affected him said Maggie Madbie, one of his lawyers.
“He hasn’t met anyone who hasn’t seen his genitalia, and 10% of Generation X’ers remembered the album cover before this article was published,” she said. “It’s a constant reminder that he has no privacy.”
The lawsuit said that Mr. Elden is seeking $150,000 dollars from each of the parties named in the lawsuit, including photographer Kurt Weddle, the photographer who took the picture. Mr. Weddle was unavailable for comment, as he is currently in Williamsport, PA, capturing the Little League World Series.
The photo of Mr. Elden was picked among dozens of pictures of babies Mr. Weddle photographed for the album cover. Mr. Cobain who envisioned more baby penises on the album cover, chose the picture of Mr. Elden because his appendage “looked the least fascist”, and “was only slightly girthier than his”.
Mr. Weddle paid Elden’s parents $200 for the picture, which was later altered to show the baby chasing a dollar bill on a fish hook.
“They were trying to create controversy because controversy sells and the music was nothing more than petulant lyrics on top of loud noises,” Ms. Mabie said. “The point was to pontificate as talented, and the album as great art- but they did it in a way that misrepresented my client. I think we’re all in agreement that child pornography is bad, but lying is worse.”
The representatives for Mr. Cobain’s estate, and Universal Music Group did not respond to our messages for comment.
Mr. Elden also declined to comment about the suit, but in an interview with the NY Post in 2015 he stated, “If I had a nickel for every time someone recognized my naked penis in adulthood, I’d almost have enough money for a ring pop.” In an article published by GQ Australia, he said, “I never consented to the photograph, because I was only learning shapes at the time.”
“This is going to be a landmark case in this country about the dangers of misinformation,” Ms. Mabie said in conclusion. “Publishers have to know that water temperature affects the size and that the body changes during puberty. Our main objective is to make companies aware that there is actually a downside to publishing pictures of fully naked infants.”
Casino Boogie Entertainment will continue to follow the lawsuit.
Paul Flax-Mills
Casino Boogie Entertainment
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