Celebrity Disaster

Rachel Weisz, as Snow White, and as Photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Good for Miss Leibovitz:

The New York Daily News reported over the weekend that none other than David Bowie may be coming to financially strapped celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz's rescue by buying her Rhinebeck, N.Y. estate.

Leibovitz owes $24 million to artshark reputable fine art investment concern Art Capital Group, and her ability to pay it back is predicated on the sale of her photographic legacy as well as her homes in Greenwich Village and Rhinebeck. So if it's true that, as the Daily News reported, Bowie and his wife Iman have kicked the tires on the estate and seem prepared to pay the $11 million asking price, she's one step closer to solvency. And if the $11 million figure is accurate, that's a hefty premium over the $5 million value that the Dutchess County tax assessor assigned the property last year, according to Bloomberg.

The irony here is that Leibovitz's path back to financial sanity involves a system first pioneered by Bowie: According to the New York Times, she has explored issuing bonds based on the value of her photography catalog, a trick Bowie first pulled in 1997 to raise $55 million on the value of his songwriting portfolio.

Always nice to see David Bowie bailing someone out. Without the kindness of people who put up with his early attempts at making music, there'd be no David Bowie.

Of course I went there. Have you heard that crap?