Photographer Annie Leibovitz May Declare Bankruptcy
ROBERTS: Christine Romans, minding your business this morning. And troubled financial times for famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. What's going on?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is remarkable news. There is a $24 million loan coming due today, and bankruptcy attorneys are saying that the famed photographer should file for bankruptcy simply because she potentially could lose control over every picture she has ever taken, everything. Think of these iconic images. This is a woman who essentially made photography fine art, or I will say she perfected photography as fine art. She's made some pretty big business mistakes in the past, including a couple of very big mortgages and some tax liens. She went to a group called Art Capital Group, which calls itself the private banking for the art world, and secured a $24 million loan to cover all of this. And now this group is suing her, saying that she has not been making her payments, that she has fallen in neglect to the terms of that loan. And now they say that they could move forward in court and take control of all of her assets here because of these unpaid bills. Her attorneys are not saying this morning what her next move will be, and Art Capital Group has not returned a call for comment. So we don't know what's going to happen next. But today is the deadline for her to settle this finally, otherwise potentially lose. She essentially mortgaged her intellectual property.</s>ROBERTS: It's amazing that she could take these incredible photographs, everything from John Lennon nude with Yoko Ono to the queen, which was one of her most recent photo shoots, and be in such financial trouble.</s>ROMANS: There's a couple of very big high mortgage properties, there's some big, I think a 200 acre farm upstate and also a triplex in Greenwich Village, perhaps. There is some big real estate costs here as well. And this is a woman who, when she does it, she does it big. I mean, each one of these photographs clearly spent a lot of money on location and the time. And there are a lot of artists, when you go through history, you see a lot of artists who have been brilliant at what they do but have made financial mistakes around the world.</s>CHETRY: With singers as we say with Michael Jackson.</s>ROMANS: Billy Joel went broke early on.</s>ROBERTS: Yes, but his manager has ripped him off.</s>ROMANS: And he has overcome it, as well. The question here is can she overcome it, can she keep control of this artwork? Because this is not someone you would think would want to see her images on the side of a can of soda, which could happen if essentially if you sold off these images to be used in marketing for something else.</s>CHETRY: Hopefully they'll be able to come to an agreement. Christine Romans, thanks so much. Still ahead, John will be speaking to Senator Charles Grassley as we talk about this debate over health care. Where are Republicans willing to compromise, if they are? Is there anything to, perhaps, Senator Baucus's bill? And will we see health care reform passed in this congress?