

D-Day: Annie Leibovitz must repay a £16million debt by tomorrow or facing losing the rights to her life's work
Famed celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz faces losing everything today with just hours to go before she must repay a £16million loan - or lose her four homes and the rights to her life's work.
As if things weren't bad enough, yesterday an Italian cameraman sued her for passing off his pictures as her own.
Miss Leibovitz, 59, whose controversial pictures include a series of the Queen and 1991’s famous nude of a heavily pregnant Demi Moore, is said to earn at least £3million a year from Vanity Fair magazine, and freelance assignments.
Her fame and the price tag for her work have grown since she first hit the headlines with a photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono curled naked in a foetal position, taken just hours before the ex-Beatle was shot in 1980.
But she is struggling under a mountain of debt after a series of financial bungles.
And yesterday Italian photographer Paolo Pizzetti claimed Miss Leibovitz used photos he took in Venice and Rome, and passed them off as her own in a 2009 calendar for a coffee company.
Mr Pizzetti said he took the photos to illustrate locations for Miss Leibovitz, who was then supposed to take her own pictures. He is seeking a court order to stop the images from being used and £183,000 for copyright infringement.
A far bigger headache is the Tuesday deadline she faces to repay £16million to a New York company described as ‘an upmarket pawn shop’ that specialises in short-term loans.
Court papers show that the company, Art Capital Group, loaned Miss Leibovitz £16million to pay off all her debts which include £10million in overdue mortgages on four properties; about £2million in taxes, unpaid since 2004; and at least £500,000 to stylists and designers who worked for her.
Two of Leibovitz's most famous images: First, John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a photograph taken the day he was shot to death...
... And second, the Demi Moore Vanity Fair cover from 1991
ACG took the properties – three historic town houses in New York’s trendy Greenwich Village and a country estate in Rheinbeck, upstate New York, as collateral for the loan along with all rights to her past and future work.
When she failed to meet a scheduled payment deadline in July, they sued for breach of contract and a judge gave Miss Leibovitz until Tuesday to pay back the full £16 million.
Today experts said Miss Leibovitz’s best bet was to file for bankruptcy reorganization, which would protect her assets and give her time to refinance.
Miss Leibovitz’s spokesman, Matthew Hiltzik, accused ACG of harassment. He said: ‘There has been tension and dispute since the beginning.’
ACG spokesman Montieth Illingworth said: ‘We have clear contractual rights and will protect them in any scenario.’
THE SONG THEY SELECTED FOR THIS KICKS ASS!!! WHO DOESN'T LOVE A LITTLE MR MISTER!!!
Wooden, now 98 years old, has been one of the brightest stars that the basket ball court has ever witnessed. A panel of 118 renowned and distinguished coaches from various sports were put together by ‘The Sporting News’ to rate the 50 greatest U.S. coaches from all sports.
The much awaited result did not come as a surprise as many believed that the 98 year old living legend truly deserved the honor. Wooden was a runaway winner as he picked up 57 first class votes. The margin of votes between the top spot and the second spot reflected a massive gap as the second spot was held by the Green Bay Packers legend, Vince Lombardi, who secured as many as 27 votes.
Following Vince were Bear Bryant, Phil Jackson, Don Shula, Red Auerbach, Scotty Bowman, Dean Smith, Casey Stengel and Knute Rockne.
Although Wooden doesn’t travel much any more due to his age barrier and remains curbed within his wheel chair, still his wit, modesty and his sharp mind are intact. When asked about what he felt after being considered as the best coach of all time, Wooden with utmost modesty said, “No one is deserving of being called the very best. No one.” Wooden then raised his fingers to point out the middle aged men who had been once his young men. “They are the ones who make coaches.
Coaches help. But if you do not have the youngsters, you are not going to do the job,” quipped the living legend.
He was warmly welcomed and honored on Wednesday which was attended by his family along with the former players.
Jesse Holley when got the phone call from a friend when he was in athletic department at the University of North Carolina, he thought it was a joke. The friend told him to try out a reality show in which the winner would be getting a place on the Cowboy’s training camp.
Holley played four years at North Carolina, before he worked for a short stretch with the Cincinnati Bengals and British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, for a security monitoring company and used to sell cell phones. When he reached 25 he thought his football career is done.
“I didn’t give the show much thought at first,” Holley said in an interview. “But it was a chance and the more I thought about it…”
Holley was a member of the Tar Heel’s 2005 national championship basketball team, on Monday he was selected winner of Micheal Irvin’s 4th and Long on Spike TV. He was put to 80th and the final roster spot as his prize when the Cowboys were at training camp in San Antonio on July 28.
Holley is 6-3 feet of height and weighs 215 pounds and got speed of 4.5seconds in the 40-yard dash. Irvan added in Holleys abilities that, he is a quickest learners he came across.
“He’d pick up things immediately,”
Irvin said.
“If I am a coach and I see him implement something right away, I know I have a player.”
“Jesse Holley, the Cowboys can use you,”
said Irvin
JESSE HOLLEY PLAYED FOOTBALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. SO IT IS NICE TO SEE A LOCAL BOY WON THE SHOW AND IS HEADING TO DALLAS TO HOPEFULLY PLAY FOR AMERICAS TEAM!!!
GO DALLAS!!!
RALEIGH, N.C. - When Joseph Carnevale chopped up three stolen orange and white traffic barrels from a construction site to create a massive sculpture of a roadside monster thumbing a ride, the North Carolina college student said he saw it as a form of street art.
Raleigh, N.C., police just saw vandalism.
They dismantled the 10-foot "barrel monster" and arrested Carnevale. Hundreds of online supporters want the charges dropped and the publicity has turned the history major and part-time construction worker into a local celebrity.
"They can get as big as the size of a watermelon," he said.