Thread: Annie Leibovitz offered ad campaign but denied a card

Any of you folks heard of Annie Leibovitz? She's a photographer. She said in an interview she was offered an ad campaign from American Express but what they didn't know is that she had a applied for a card a bunch of times and was denied.

Because of her credit issues, Leibovitz was forced to deal almost exclusively in cash. In 1987, American Express offered her a plum ad campaign. Ironically, Leibovitz’s application for a card had been denied many times.

source - Felix Salmon » Blog Archive » Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re smart | Blogs |

her financial troubles. Check out Gawker. I really like her work and I sympathize with her plight, but it was gross irresponsibility that got her into the mess that she's in -- owing $24 million to what amounts to a high-end pawn shop. She could very well lose control of the entire catalog of her work. That would mean her images could be sold by the new owner for just about anything, the way I read it. How would you like to be Yoko Ono facing the prospect that Lebowitz's iconic image of you and John Lennon might wind up in a mattress ad? Lebowitz not only screwed herself, she potentially screwed the subjects of her photographs who could have never reasonably imagined that control of the pictures L was taking might one day be in jeopardy.

Celebrities like Lebowitz and Ed McMahon who sqander millions do not set a good example for the rest of us. Part of a larger problem, I would say.