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A 30-year-old man who appeared nude at four months old in 1991 on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album is suing the band and others, alleging the image is child pornography from which they have profited.
The suit, filed by Spencer Elden on Tuesday in federal court in California, alleges that Nirvana and the record labels behind Nevermind "intentionally commercially marketed Spencer's child pornography and leveraged the shocking nature of his image to promote themselves and their music at his expense".
The suit says Elden has suffered "lifelong damages" from the ubiquitous image of him naked underwater appearing to swim after a dollar bill on a fish hook.
It seeks at least $150,000 from each of more than a dozen defendants, including the Kurt Cobain estate, surviving Nirvana members Krist Novocelic and Dave Grohl and Geffen Records.
Emails seeking comment from representatives for the defendants were not immediately returned.
Elden is filing the lawsuit now because he "finally has the courage to hold these actors accountable," one of his lawyers, Maggie Mabie, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Mabie said despite the photo being 30 years old, the suit is within the statute of limitations of federal child pornography law for several reasons, including the fact that the image is still in circulation and earning money.
Elden also wants any new versions of the album altered.
"If there is a 30th anniversary re-release, he wants for the entire world not to see his genitals," Mabie said.
When the cover was shot, Nirvana was a little-known grunge band with no sense they were making a generation-defining album in Nevermind, their first major label release, whose songs included Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come as You Are and Lithium.
Elden's father was a friend of the photographer, Kirk Weddle, who took pictures of several swimming babies in several scenarios at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center in Pasadena, California.
"Cobain chose the image depicting Spencer - like a sex worker - grabbing for a dollar bill that is positioned dangling from a fishhook in front of his nude body with his penis explicitly displayed," the lawsuit says.
Elden has recreated the image several times, always with clothes or swim trunks on, for anniversaries of the album's release, and has expressed mixed feelings about it in interviews that have grown increasingly negative through the years.
He told the New York Post in 2015 that it was "cool but weird to be part of something so important that I don't even remember".
He added, "It would be nice to have a quarter for every person that has seen my baby penis."
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been victims of sexual abuse, but may when they have repeatedly come forward publicly, as Elden has.
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Image: By Kraft74 / Shutterstock
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The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has died at the age of 80, his publicist has said.
The musician, who marked his 80th birthday in June, had been a member of the rock group since 1963.
A statement from his London publicist Bernard Doherty to the PA news agency said: "It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts. He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier today surrounded by his family.
"Charlie was a cherished husband, father and grandfather and also, as a member of The Rolling Stones, one of the greatest drummers of his generation.
"We kindly request that the privacy of his family, band members and close friends is respected at this difficult time.''
Earlier this month, it was announced that Watts was to miss the band's forthcoming US tour.
A spokesman for him said at the time he was "unlikely to be available for the resumption of the Rolling Stones USA No Filter Tour this fall" as he recovered from an unspecified medical procedure.
The band are due to resume the tour Stateside in September, following its postponement last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Session and touring musician Steve Jordan was previously announced as Watts' temporary replacement on drums.
Watts said at the time that "For once my timing has been a little off. I am working hard to get fully fit but I have today accepted on the advice of the experts that this will take a while."
A spokesperson said then that Watts' procedure had been "completely successful" but that he needed time to recuperate.
Following the news, Sir Mick Jagger welcomed Jordan, who will join the band when the tour starts in St Louis on September 26, with dates also scheduled for Pittsburgh, Nashville, Minneapolis, Dallas and more.
Alongside frontman Sir Mick and guitarist Keith Richards, Watts was among the longest-standing members of the Stones, which has seen a shifting line-up of musicians including Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman.
In 2004, Watts was treated for throat cancer at London's Royal Marsden Hospital and he was given the all-clear after a four-month battle with the disease, involving six weeks of intensive radiotherapy treatment.
Watts was diagnosed after discovering a lump on the left side of his neck.
Doctors performed a biopsy which confirmed the tumour was malignant and he was diagnosed with throat cancer in June that year.
His spokesman said at the time that Watts' treatment had "not interfered with any tour or recording plans for the group, who have been 'relaxing between work commitments'".
Following his recovery, the band began work on their 22nd studio album, A Bigger Bang.
Watts, who reportedly gave up smoking in the 1980s, said during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine at the time that he felt "very lucky" doctors had caught the cancer early.
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PHOTO: DonClemente12F67, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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What comes to mind when you’re reaching for a snack to go with your beer? Pretzels? Nuts? Chips?
Bet you didn’t think of liquorice…
But think again, because Darrel Lea has released a beer and it contains their liquorice bullets!
The iconic Aussie chocolate and sweets company has teamed up with a brewing company to give us the Darrell Lea Batch 37 Dark Chocolate Liquorice Stout.
Nomad Brewing Co, based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, collaborated with Darrel Lea on the new limited edition brew and confirmed that actual bullets went into the beer along with cocoa nibs and liquorice.
If you love liquorice and you love beer, then you're in for a treat.
But for others, it might be a controversial choice.
If you’re not sure… well Darrell Lea says on their website that their black liquorice contains 75% more antioxidants than blueberries, so maybe that's good motivation to try it!?
Image: Instagram/Darrel Lea Australia
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Come for the news, stay for the drama. Morning Wars (known as "The Morning Show" in the US) Season 2 premieres September 17 on Apple TV+
Picking up after the explosive events of Season 1, this season finds the Morning Show team emerging from the wreckage of Alex (Jennifer Aniston) and Bradley’s (Reese Witherspoon) actions to a new UBA and a world in flux, where identity is everything, and the chasm between who we present and who we really are comes into play.
Along with Aniston and Witherspoon, the returning cast for Season 2 includes Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Nestor Carbonell, Karen Pittman, Bel Powley, Desean Terry, Janina Gavankar, Tom Irwin, and Marcia Gay Harden. New stars joining this season are Greta Lee, Ruairi O’Connor, Hasan Minhaj, Cybil Richards, Tara Karsian, Valeria Golino, and Julianna Margulies.
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