Celebrity Photographer Annie Leibovitz Sued for Unpaid Bills
Financial problems for Annie Leibovitz continue to mount as the celebrity photographer is now being sued for unpaid bills.
Brunswick Capital Partners LP, a Manhattan-based investment firm, has brought a lawsuit against Leibovitz for failing to pay fees owed to them for arranging her recent financing agreement with another firm, Colony Capital LLC, Business Week reports.
The lawsuit alleges the celebrity photographer owes them more than $800,000 after it secured a financing deal last month with Colony Capital, as previously discussed in this blog.
Brunswick Capital Partners LP says it linked Leibovitz with investors to pull her out of a financial hole and threatened to cost her control of her portfolio.
According to the lawsuit Leibovitz owes the firm for unpaid bills for their services to arrange her new deal with Colony.
Colony Capital was among those introduced, Brunswick said, but the company's 2% "success fee" was not paid.
As previously discussed, Colony rescued her from millions of dollars of debt and helping to market her portfolio of celebrity images. In addition, the deal allowed Colony to become her sole creditor and Leibovitz will retain control of her portfolio.
The agreement released Annie Leibovitz of a loan to repay a $24 million to the Manhattan firm Art Capital Group. The financial dispute had threatened her rights to her own images.
She retained her rights to 100,000 photographs and one million negatives. She has photographed Bruce Springsteen, Queen Elizabeth, a pregnant Demi Moore and a nude John Lennon cuddling with a clothed Yoko Ono.
Brunswick Capital says her work is worth more than $40 million.
The lawsuit brought against her by Brunswick Capital seeks more than $803,000.
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