Photographer Annie Leibovitz faces financial woes

Photographer Annie Leibovitz—best known for her editorial work with Vanity Fair and commercial campaigns for American Express, Gap and the Milk Board—may be forced to give up her Greenwich Village townhouses, a home in upstate New York and the rights to decades of her work in order to settle a debt. The lending company Art Capital Group has sued Leibovitz for nonpayment of a $24 million loan, which it gave to her last year with the stipulation that it would be paid in full by September 8, 2009. Leibovitz ran into financial problems in the past few years, while also dealing with the death of her parents and her longtime companion, Susan Sontag, and the struggle of raising three young children. However, why she needed so much cash remains a mystery. “The mind that can take these extraordinary pictures is not necessarily the same mind that is a perfect money manager,” said Graydon Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair.