CELEBRITY PHOTOGRAPHER DEEPLY IN DEBT

     Famous celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz is deeply in debt, it has been claimed.
     The 58-year-old star snapper, who was at the centre of a controversy Queen Elizabeth II which led to the controller of BBC One being forced to resign, owes around a whopping US$715,000, according to court documents.
     Leibovitz, who has a contract with American upmarket magazine Vanity Fair which brings her in more than US$2 million alone, allegedly owes money for unpaid taxes, an aborted book project and outstanding equipment rents.
     On top of that Leibovitz, who owns a portfolio full of controversial and iconic celebrity portraits which brings her in millions in copyright fees, is also at least a year overdue in paying for renovations to her Greenwich Village townhouse, according to the documents reports the New York Post newspaper.
     Leibovitz declined to comment on the debacle through a Vanity Fair spokeswoman.
     The spokeswoman said: To the best of my knowledge all of these debts have been resolved."
     Leibovitz started her career as a photographer for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970 and has through the last four decades become as famous as many of the stars and socialites that have posed for her.
     Her work has included being invited to take the first pictures of Mission: Impossible superstar Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes new baby Suri and photographing a seven-months pregnant nude Demi Moore.
     She was the last person to photograph John Lennon. Initially, she'd only wanted the former Beatle in the shot but he insisted that his wife Yoko Ono should be included.
     The picture of a naked Lennon clinging to the fully- clothed Ono became the cover of the Rolling Stones commemorative issue, because Lennon was shot and killed just five hours after the shoot, on December 8 1980.
     But her work has also been controversial, such as recently when she got teen pop phenomenon Miley Cyrus to pose suggestively.
     The racy pictures of the Hannah Montana star included shots of the 15-year-old wrapped in what appears to be a satin bedsheet, looking over her shoulder with her naked back exposed.
     Leibovitz, however, also found herself at the centre of a controversy that was not of her making.
     She was asked by Queen Elizabeth II to take her official photograph for her state visit to Virginia. The BBC filmed the photoshoot as part of their documentary called A Year with the Queen.
     Fudging the time sequence to create a dramatic trailer led to a BBC scandal and a shake-up of their ethics training. The fiasco also led to the downfall of BBC One boss Peter Fincham.