Annie Leibovitz is $715,000 in debt *Update* Agreement Reached

[Nemezide]

Credit crunch victim or is someone living beyond their means?
Famed photographer Annie Liebovitz is $715,000 in debt, according to recently filed court documents.
It's crazy that Annie's in debt. She reportedly gets about $2 million from Vanity Fair magazine every year.
The photog allegedly owes money for unpaid taxes, an aborted book project, and outstanding equipment rental fees.
AND, she's supposedly at least a year overdue in paying for renovations to her Greenwich Village townhouse.

perez

 

[liberty33r1b]

i never knew she got that much from vanity fair each year.....but then again, her pics are phenomenal, so it's not that surprising i guess

 

[CharlottefromCA]

Rihanna I can understand, but this makes no sense to me.

 

[sethii]

Doesn't she have personal assistants and financial advisors?

 

[microfizz]

I do not trust that source so much. Perez can be entertaining and mildly amusing at times, but he is definitely not the face of ethics in journalism.

If this is true, I hope Annie can pay her debt and clear that episode. I am sure she can pay that with the Miley money.

 

[ultramarine]

What about the Disney campaign? That was HUGE?

Where did the money go?

 

[MissAnia]

Annie Lebovitz is one of the most sought after photographers in the entertainment industry. She has taken iconic shots of everyone from John Lennon to Demi Moore. She came under fire recently after a Vanity Fair cover shoot featuring Miley Cyrus. Now Annie Lebovitz has had to deny claims she is over $715,000 in debt.
Annie Leibovitz’s impressive photographic portfolio earns her over $2 million annually.
However, according to some reports and media outlets, the court records show that Annie Leibovitz’ debt stemmed from failing on tax payments, equipment rental fees, renovations to her Manhattan apartment in addition to an aborted book project.
The 58-year-old photographer denies her bills remain outstanding. A spokesperson for Vanity Fair magazine tells the New York Post on behalf of the photographer: “To the best of my knowledge all of these (debts) have been resolved.”

[perezrevenge.com]

 

[McClaire]

is this for real? how can one be that much in debt? (minus if your a student)

 

[tctra]

Should we really feel sorry for a highly paid indvidual who didn't know how to take care of her money? I for one, do not

 

[|BellaDonna|]

Well hopefully she will be to busy with that to produce an unflattering cover pic of First Lady Michelle Obama for Vogue. She has consistently fukked up pics of the black personalities gracing the US Vogue cover.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[enVogue]

Oh
If that's really true (what you never know with news like that), I'm sorry for her and hopes she gets many well- paid jobs to solve this problem

 

[Leeroi]

wouldnt this be all over the news if it really was true? i dont think we should really be using perez as the first source of news about annie leibowitz.

 

[SundayMornings]

WHAT?!! No way! Hmmmm...this is the first time I've heard of this. I'm not sure Perez is a very legit source. If she was that much in debt, it'd be on CNN and all the other entertainment news shows by now. B/c that is no small sum there and remember how Ed McMann's and even Saved by the Bell's Screech's (forgot his real name) debts were all over the news?

 

[waxy]

yikes. being in debt sucks. hope it's not true.

 

[goregeous]

I heard about this on I believe fashion television. Apparently she's so in debt she had to put up all the rights to her work as collateral.

 

[malaychic]

recession recession~

 

[thefashionlover]

I think she will make it through ok

 

[thesiren]

i can see where she might owe in taxes.

her work is probably all contract 1099 work, so taxes are deducted initially. making the mad amount of money she makes, i'm sure april is a big shocker every year (though you think she'd be used to it by now).

 

[Echoes]

Annie Leibovitz, photographer of stars, faces ruin

Annie Leibovitz, photographer of stars, faces ruin

Aug 23 04:24 AM US/Eastern


Annie Leibovitz is as famous as the people she photographs but now the genius behind the lens is close to financial ruin -- a victim, some say, of her own relentless artistic ambition.

Among the qualities making Leibovitz, 59, the most sought after portrait photographer in the world are legendary perfectionism and the pouring of resources into lavish sets.

Over the course of her long career, nothing has been too extreme in Leibovitz's pursuit of the perfect picture.

She put former action icon and current California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on top of a mountain, submerged black actress Whoopi Goldberg in a bath of milk and closed France's Versailles palace to shoot Kirsten Dunst posing as Marie-Antoinette.

Circus animals, fire, airplanes -- she was rarely denied a requested prop, however seemingly outrageous.

That kind of imagination, and the stylized, hyper-realistic portraits she produced, had a long line of celebrities, from Hollywood stars to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, beating a path to Leibovitz's door.

Yet behind a facade of unlimited financial means, Leibovitz was spending her way into nightmare.

In what now appears as a disastrous decision to raise funds, Leibovitz took a 24-million-dollar loan from Art Capital Group (ACG) -- in effect a high-end pawn broker -- in December 2008 using her own photographs as collateral.

That debt is due September 8 and if she can't pay up, she could lose her life's work.

ACG, which specializes in making loans to owners of high value art works, is unlikely to adopt a soft line.

Leibovitz must "comply with the sales agreement she signed authorizing Art Capital to sell the fine art and real estate assets and to pay the invoices that are due," ACG spokesman Montieth Illingworth said in a statement.

The over-leveraged photographer not only risks losing her photo archives, which The New York Times estimates could be worth 50 million dollars, but also her house in the trendy Greenwich Village district of Manhattan and a second home outside the city.

If she is forced to declare bankruptcy, it will then be up to the courts to decide how to distribute the assets.

Banking giant Goldman Sachs entered the fray this week with a claim to own part of Leibovitz's debt.

ACG disputes that, but says Goldman Sachs could be invited to bid for the loan.

Leibovitz's career has few parallels. Her famous shoots include a nude portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono -- just before the Beatle was murdered -- and nude and pregnant actress Demi Moore.

Despite moving in such glamorous circles, Leibovitz has never been known for having a knack for finance.

When she was hired to shoot ads for American Express in the 1980s, it emerged she had been previously turned down by the company when applying for a credit card.

New York's chattering classes are aghast at the renowned photographer's downfall, making her the latest spectacular victim of the bad debt crisis and nationwide recession.

The weekly New York Magazine published a lengthy article recounting her perfectionism at work and her lavish personal taste, including an apartment on the banks of the Seine in Paris to please her lover, writer Susan Sontag, who died in 2004.

Anna Wintour, the equally famous editor of Vogue magazine, said in a documentary that Leibovitz was priceless.

"Budget is not something that enters into her consciousness, but it is worth it because at the end of the day, she gives you an image that nobody else can," said Wintour.


Copyright AFP 2008

http://www.breitbart.com/article.ph...6daba9c6b086caf08f.21&show_article=1&catnum=1

 

[iluvjeisa]

^Eh...what about the Lady Dior campaign. Shouldn't that keep her in dough for quite some time?

Oh well.